Theory-Based Story Portions
by Winger-Hawk
Summary: Story portions (multi-part) and one-shots stemming from my theories on Tumblr, regarding the show and its characters. They're rough drafts of how I think certain events from the show are going to play out. #1 is a Pilot Redux with Captain Cobra Swan, the CS Baby and the return of the Evil Queen to Storybrooke as one possible scenario for S6 and 6.01.
1. Pilot Redux Ch 1: The American Dream

**TITLE:**

 **Theory-Based Story Portions**

 **SUMMARY:**

Story portions (multi-part) and one-shots stemming from my theories on Tumblr, regarding the show and its characters. They're rough drafts of how I think certain events from the show are going to play out. #1 is a Pilot Redux with Captain Cobra Swan, the CS Baby and the return of the Evil Queen to Storybrooke as one possible scenario for S6 and 6.01.

 **AUTHOR'S NOTES:**

Hey, all! So…I decided to get back to my writing this summer (and not just the analytical kind). It has been positively _forever_ since I've actually written something (of the story kind), so I wanted the practice before I took on anything bigger (like an ebook). _That_ and there are times when I get story portions in my head and I just feel absolutely compelled to write out a small story bit until I actually get to the part I want to write. I don't know if that's what's considered a "drabble" or a "one-shot" or…whatever. I confess, I don't quite understand the lingo going around anymore. Once Internet 2.0 put the pedal to the metal, I've been left in the dust (which I really don't mind), so…

Anyway! In my head, these count as me brainstorming my theories in a more entertaining (and organized) fashion, rather than in a random brain dump post that probably doesn't make sense to anyone but me. At least _this_ brain dump is in story form! :-P

 **Pilot Redux**

So _this_ "short story" or "drabble", or whatever you want to call it, came out of a theory I've been kicking around in my head as to what we're going to see in 6.01. Considering it's 33,000+ words long, it's obvious we're not going to see _all_ of this played out (or even _set-up_ ) in 6.01, but one scene I _do_ have quite a bit of confidence that we _will_ be seeing in 6.01 is the Evil Queen returning to Storybrooke. And the thing that got me excited, the thing that made me _want_ to write this little (4-part) story portion was this idea:

 **What if the Evil Queen reintroduced herself to the citizens of Storybrooke the** _ **EXACT**_ **same way she was introduced by the writers in the Pilot?**

 **Except instead of it being at Snow and Charming's** _ **wedding**_ **(like it was in the Pilot), in 6.01, it would be at Emma and Killian's pregnancy announcement.**

So we have ourselves a Pilot Redux, with our main couple (Captain Swan) in place of our model couple (Snowing), and the celebration of a physical union (a baby) rather than the celebration of a superficial union (a wedding).

It goes without saying that these stories are going to be based on my theories. If you need to catch up: **Emma is pregnant (and has been since 4.10) and Killian is the Sorcerer (and has been since 5.11)**. There! You're all caught up! :-D There are small theories incorporated into this story (and a few new ones I developed while writing it), but those are the two big ones you'll need to keep in mind. Once again, this isn't a complete story, just a story _portion_. I don't want to write out an entire season only to be disappointed when it actually airs. It starts from the end of 5.23, and goes until the Evil Queen shows up in Storybrooke. It's in four parts, because each portion is long-ish. I'll be posting a new part of the story every other day (or every day; it depends on what I decide).

Enjoy! :-)

PS: For those of you who follow me for my _Harry Potter_ stuff, I _promise_ I'll get back to that soon. I want to finish the story I already have on here, _Serendipity_ (three chapters left, and they've already been outlined for _years_ ), and start a new one full of one-shots (or whatever they call it) featuring the family and the kids over the years. It's on my "To-Do" list for the summer. Soon! I promise! :-D

 **DISCLAIMER:**

I own nothing. All the familiar characters (and storyline which I use as my model) have been created by Adam and Eddy and ABC and the Brothers Grimm and JM Barrie and Hans Christian Anderson and Robert Louis Stevenson and Oscar Wilde and God, and so, _so_ , _**SO**_ many more. I vow to find my own story one day, though. Probably with characters from the public domain, if I ever find a good enough tale. Anyway!

* * *

 **Theory-Based Story Portions #1: Pilot Redux Ch.1: The American Dream**

Emma followed Killian into the diner, his hand a steady comfort in hers. The tip of her thumb stroked the knuckle of his, absentmindedly, as her thoughts wandered. She had chickened out on telling him. _Again_. Instead, she had settled for a simple, "I love you," and left it at that. Now, given, it _was_ an improvement for her, and Killian knew her well enough to recognize that, hence the _very_ nice kiss the two of them shared outside. But it wasn't what she _really_ wanted to tell him. Not really. Emma just didn't know _how_ to break it to him.

Killian knew there was something else, though. Something that she wasn't telling him. But he didn't push her. Emma figured that he was probably counting his blessings that he got _that_ much out of her. She would be too if she were him, truth be told. Emma was locked up tight beneath her armor, and though Killian _had_ broken through most of it, there was still one last layer he hadn't penetrated—her fear of abandonment.

Her fear of abandonment by the father of her unborn child, in particular.

Neal had done the most damage.

Her parents' abandonment of her was something she eventually came to understand after she was forced to give up Henry. But the fact that she _had_ to give up Henry in the _first place_ , even though she didn't really want to—the fact that she _had_ to make that choice for the sake of her child's well-being—broke her. Neal framing her for his crimes, she could've forgiven. Neal sending her to jail, she could've forgiven. But Neal leaving her, leaving _them_ , when they needed him the most… she couldn't forgive. She had wanted a future with him, she had wanted a _family_ with him, they had even picked out a place by the water!

All he needed to do was _come back_.

If he had come back, she would've kept the baby. They would've been a _family_ , and Emma wouldn't have spent two years adrift, waiting for him in the town by the water. Her baby would've been in her arms, where he belonged, instead of in the arms of a woman who tore _her_ away from _her parents_ just as swiftly as she tore _her son_ away from _her_. None of this would've happened if Neal just… came back. Being with him, for some reason, gave her strength, even though she found herself encouraging _him_ more often than he did her. There was something about the two of them together that made her feel stronger, so that when he left… she had none of that left in her. Not even for her baby boy. The Light of her Life. Emma knew Henry deserved better than her. If she wasn't good enough for his father, why would she be good enough for him?

At least that's what she thought at the time.

She knows better now, of course, thanks to Killian. Out of everyone who went with her to Neverland, Killian is the one who changed her the most. Before Neverland, she had doubts about her ability to _be_ a mother, her ability to protect her baby and be there for him when he needed her. That was until Killian came into her life and told her she _could_ do it—that he had yet to see her fail, and that he saw the strength in her that she didn't even see in herself. He was the one who turned his ship around, who brought them _to_ Neverland so that she could save her baby, and then brought them back "when" that was done. He was by her side the entire time, being her back-up, her support system, and her guide. Killian's faith in her never wavered from the moment he decided to come back. It was from _his_ encouragement that Emma found the strength inside of her again—a strength she thought she lost when Neal left. She found out that she _could_ be a mother, _especially_ to her baby boy, and that she _did_ have it in her, and that she _did_ deserve to have Henry in her life, just as much as he deserved her.

Killian did for her what Neal didn't—he changed everything by coming back.

So when history started repeating itself with Killian, and she found herself at the _wrong_ end of the equation, she did _everything_ in her power to try to prevent it.

It all started when she absorbed the Darkness and became the Dark One, all for the sake of saving Regina, Henry and the rest of the town. Killian had _begged_ her not to do it, but she did it anyway. She _was_ "the Savior" after all. Wasn't it her job to put her life (and soul) on the line for everyone else? Isn't that what Saviors did?

Then the Darkness told her she wasn't the only one in there. That there was a _second_ soul in her body who could absorb it easily if she didn't feel so inclined to absorb the darkness into _her own_ soul. If Emma knew she was pregnant, she wouldn't have taken the Darkness on in the first place. She absorbed it in order to protect _Henry_ , for Pete's sake! Of course she wouldn't knowingly put her unborn baby in the line of fire!

But she had. It was done. The only thing left now was to control the Darkness so that it _stayed_ away from her baby, which unfortunately meant giving up her _own_ soul to it (which was surprisingly easier to do than she thought), and finding the Sorcerer, Merlin, so that he could take the thing _out_ of her and she wouldn't have to worry about it infecting her _or_ her baby anymore. And, of course, Killian spearheaded that mission just as doggedly as she did. If not more so. If he wasn't spending his time keeping the darkness from infecting her soul (which only made her worry more about the baby's soul, but worked nonetheless), he was spending his time poring through spell books and records and following any and every lead that would help them get Merlin out of the tree. Sometimes Emma wondered if he knew, if he had found out somehow through some other means, and that he just wasn't telling her that he knew.

But he didn't. That fierce determination to protect his loved ones, that was just who Killian _was_. Every night, he would try something different to try to get her to sleep, but it never worked. After Killian stayed up with her until dawn one night, and then flat-out refused to go to sleep the night after, Emma vowed to _pretend_ to go to sleep, just for his sake. So every night she would let him hold her, and then after she was sure he was in a deep sleep, she would carefully climb out of bed and start making her dreamcatchers until dawn. _Just one more,_ she remembered telling herself back then—just one more will be good enough to protect her family. If she just had enough of them, she would be able to keep her family safe and _whole_ this time around. When she got pregnant with Henry, she only had one hanging on the windowsill of her and Neal's hotel room, and she had lost the both of them after that. So Emma made more than one this time around. She made one for each of them, four in total—one for her, Killian, Henry and the baby. And then she made an extra one just in case she had twins and the Darkness just hadn't told her about the second one. And then she made a second set of four, just in case, and she hung them all on her windowsill.

Killian knew she wasn't sleeping. Every time she wandered away at night, he would sense it somehow, get up and follow her. Emma knew she no more had him tricked than she had _herself_ tricked into thinking _he_ was tricked. They humored each other, the two of them. Killian gave up trying to get her to sleep and merely settled for taking short rests at night (an ear always open for where she was in the room), and Emma settled for making her dreamcatchers in bed next to him. Or, at the very least, in the same room as him. Killian _was_ the only one who could drive away her demons, after all (though she still worried about where they disappeared to, hence her obsession with her dreamcatchers). She always felt protected with him, her strength.

Which was why what happened next made her nauseous just _thinking_ about it! She _did_ manage to free Merlin, alright, and he _did_ manage to tell them how to get rid of the Darkness. But Arthur's grudge against Merlin, and his obsession with completing Excalibur for a reason far less urgent than Emma's, led to her family being kidnapped and Killian being slashed with the sword. So when Emma tried to put it back together again, its ability to kill reactivated, and Killian collapsed in her arms, dying.

And _that's_ when Emma lost it. _That's_ when Emma flashed back to Neal and him leaving her in jail, pregnant and alone. _That's_ when Emma flashed back to the day she gave birth to Henry, and nobody was by her side. _That's_ when Emma flashed back to Killian telling her _just_ that morning that a future with him was nothing to be afraid of, and she responded that she _did_ want a future with him; that she _did_ want a family with him! And that family was already on its way! _That's_ what she _didn't_ tell him. What she _couldn't_ tell him. Even in that moment of abject desperation, she couldn't blurt it out. She told him that she needed him to stay—for her _and_ for their future—for their child. Their _children!_ Emma couldn't forget that Killian _and_ Henry had worked together to find a house for _all_ of them—a house by the water, just like Tallahassee. Henry was just beginning to accept Killian as the father-figure in his life. And that's what Emma flashed back to while Killian lay dying in her arms—two children without a father, a house by the water, and an empty space in her bed. Killian was her strength. He was her support system. She couldn't raise this child alone, their _children_ alone!

So she did the unthinkable—she attached him to the sword. She took Merlin's Sorcerer magic away from him and put it into Killian. Of course, she did it to him in order to keep him from dying, even though he begged her not to. And she did it via Excalibur, which was sort of the opposite of the Holy Grail, so instead of making Killian the Sorcerer, like the Holy Grail did Merlin and Nimue, it instead made him a Dark One. If Emma wasn't so distraught by everything that happened and what she did, she would've laughed at that turn of events. They were partners in everything, it seemed—even in Darkness. Of course, when Killian found out about everything (both times), _nothing_ was funny for anybody. To say he was supremely angry would have been the understatement of the century. And then to top things off, she tried to hide the sword from him, which he rightly interpreted as her desire to control him. And _that_ certainly didn't bode well for her or their relationship _at all_!

After that, there was no stopping Killian from giving in to his darkness, and acting on his desire to exact revenge on Rumplestiltskin. He was willing to do anything and everything to do it, including killing Merlin (who was _much_ too resigned to his fate for Emma's comfort, now that she thought about it), and activating a Dark Curse (which, suspiciously enough, Merlin had already _prepared_ for Killian, now that she thought about it as well). But when _Henry_ had been marked for death by Nimue, whom Killian summoned from the Underworld, then Emma knew she had to let him go. He had wanted her to do that to _begin_ with, but her desire to have him _there_ with her-for herself, for their child, _and_ for Henry-made her want to hang on to him to the point that she turned him _into_ a Beast just to keep him. And then realized too late that she lost the handsome prince that was man she loved _anyway_.

So she decided to give it all up—everything. Emma realized how monumentally she screwed up, all for her desire to have a complete family with the man she loved, so, like Neal, she decided to turn herself in—give up her life and the freedom of _being_ alive. Yes, she was pregnant, and yes, she knew it, but she had started this descent into darkness with this baby, she was going to finish it with this baby. If she had the time, maybe she would've sped up _her own_ pregnancy as well, just like she did Zelena's, so that her child wouldn't have had to suffer the same fate as her, but thanks to Nimue's presence, and her strict timetable, she didn't have that luxury. So when Emma decided to take the "fall" for all the "crimes" that she committed, and decided to absorb all the Dark Ones and kill herself with the sword, she made that decision with the comfort of knowing that her family (including Killian) would stay safe and alive (and free) in Storybrooke. And, with any luck, she and the baby would have a place for themselves in the prison that was the Underworld (or wherever they manage to end up). Perhaps her house by the sea would be there, with a fully decked-out nursery for her baby. That would be a tolerable jail cell for them. Much better than the one she and Henry had the first time around. And when the time came for Killian to join her, she would be there—ready to introduce him to his child. Emma had this all worked out in her head when she made the decision to do it.

Except she failed take into account one thing—the strength that Killian got _from her_. Emma had been _so_ wrapped up in trying to protect her loved ones that she completely forgot that Killian was _just_ as driven as she was (if not more so) to do it as well. So when _she_ was threatened by the Darkness, Killian likewise got the strength _from her_ that she got _from him_ whenever _he_ (or Henry, or baby) was threatened! And _just_ when the time was right, and she would've gladly taken the sword from him to carry out her plans to completion, _that's_ when the man she loved decided to make a reappearance! _That's_ when Killian came back to the surface and did everything with Excalibur that _she_ was about to do! So everything that Emma planned out so _perfectly_ in her head went to hell (quite literally) in a hand basket! And instead of her paying the price for the crimes that _she_ committed, and instead of her being sentenced to the Underworld for those crimes, it was _Killian_ that ended up taking the fall _for_ her!

Emma did to Killian what Neal did to her.

Emma couldn't stop throwing up that night. And it wasn't just because seven weeks of morning sickness were finally catching up with her. If Emma had just _let_ Killian die a hero in the first place, he probably wouldn't have ended up in the Underworld. He probably just would've gone straight to… wherever it is that heroes end up in after the Underworld. But now, because of _her_ , and because of what _she_ did, he _was_ down there! He was stuck in that prison because of something she did _to_ him!

So _of course_ Emma took advantage of the first opportunity she found to go back to the Underworld to get him. She would've wanted Neal to come back for her in prison, she would have been _damned_ if she passed up an opportunity to go back for Killian in _his_ new prison. She was going to do for Killian what she _wanted_ Neal to do for her! But _of course_ it didn't end up the way she wanted it to. Nothing _ever_ does for the two of them.

That _entire_ time, though, she _still_ couldn't work up the courage to tell him about the baby. Her brain kept coming up with reasons to avoid telling him. At first, she said she'd tell him after she found him and they successfully shared a heart. Because she figured he'd object _considerably_ to the heart-split if he knew she was pregnant. So she decided to forego that potential argument and just tell him afterwards. _And then_ the split heart thing didn't work, and she just about freaked out. _Especially_ when she remembered she had a fully decked-out nursery in her living room implying that _her baby_ had a place here in the Underworld _just_ like she did! (Of course, that's what she had been banking on to begin with, but she wasn't about to tell Killian that!) His eyeing the nursery furniture suspiciously just about gave her a heart attack. What if he _asked_? What would she tell him? Then, out of nowhere, Emma found herself facing the very _real_ possibility of him staying in the Underworld _despite_ her efforts to save him and bring him back. She found herself debating with herself about what she would tell him then—does she tell him about the baby, or does she leave him feeling satisfied with what he achieved in his life and how he died?

Ultimately, Emma decided that if Killian was going to come back with her, and be her partner in all things, including the raising of their children, then Killian would have to come back with her of his own free will. She didn't want him coming back with her because he felt obligated to be there for her kids, like Neal did. Emma wanted someone who wanted _her_ , to have a family _with her_ , who loved _her_ for _her_ , and not for the kids he had with her. Yes, their children would absolutely take priority (which was part of why she was avoiding telling him about the baby), but Emma didn't want Killian staying with her out of obligation! Emma wanted Killian staying with her out of love.

So she didn't tell him about the baby then either. They said their goodbyes in a way that still hurts her heart, just thinking about it, but she left him thinking that he had no Unfinished Business left in Storybrooke. Emma didn't want to hold him back, she wanted to set him _free!_ And, unfortunately, telling him about their baby would just do the opposite of that. So she let him go. She made him promise to find a way to set himself free, and then she swore to herself that when their baby got older, and he asked about his daddy, that she would tell him that his daddy died a hero of the _highest_ caliber! She had lied to Henry about that the first time around. It wouldn't be a lie this time, though. No… Killian was no Neal.

 _She_ was.

 _She_ was the scared one.

With Killian's resurrection, Emma worried about Regina's reversion back to the Evil Queen, and before any of them knew it, Rumple made to steal Storybrooke's magic and Henry ran away with the crystal. Emma found herself chasing after him along with Regina, and then the next thing she knew, Henry got rid of magic and Killian and the others were _stuck_ in another realm! Emma didn't even get a chance to _breathe_ , much less tell him about the baby, and now they were separated by realms! _Again!_ She swore to herself right then and there that _when_ this was fixed (Killian always said "when" when it came to them), she would tell him. The very _second_ they had a quiet moment to themselves, she would just blurt the damn thing out so that he would _finally_ know truth after everything they had been through!

Except she didn't.

She chickened out of telling him. _Again!_

She figured that she hadn't even gotten tested _for real_ yet. She had yet to take a single pregnancy test. Maybe the Darkness was just playing with her when it told her she was expecting. Maybe it wasn't true and it was just a trick meant to get her to absorb it into her soul more quickly.

Emma knew it wasn't true before she even finished her thought. The first time she and Killian had slept together, the night they were celebrating the Snow Queen's defeat and (unbeknownst to her) what Killian suspected was his last night on Earth, was the first time (out of many) they had unprotected sex. They didn't even _plan_ to have sex that night. It just happened! Which was probably why it was unprotected. It was raw and passionate and emotional and beautiful and he brought her to completion _three_ times before he even thought of his own desires. And when they were both sated and exhausted, they talked for hours about anything and everything until she fell asleep in his arms. Killian thought it would be their only time. For Emma, it was their first time. She wouldn't be surprised if she finds out their baby was conceived that night. That _magical_ night. No… Emma didn't want it to be a trick. She _wanted_ it to be _true_. She _wanted_ to have another baby. And _now_ , now that they had _finally_ gotten rid of the Evil Queen once and for all, now would be the perfect time to do that.

"Emma? Are you in there, love?" She felt a tug on her hand that brought her back to the present.

Emma shook her head to clear her thoughts and turned back to the handsome man at her side—the one she thought she would never see again because of the realms (and death) that separated them (twice in less than forty-eight hours; that has to be _some_ kind of record). She gave him a lazy smile. "Yeah, sorry. I was just… thinking."

"About what?" He smirked, raising an eyebrow at her.

Oh, the middle of Granny's, in front of her parents and others was certainly _not_ the place for _this_ particular conversation! "Uh… nothing. Just the stuff we've been through the last few weeks."

"Yeah, you two are trying to set some kind of record, I reckon!" Ruby chucked as she dropped a couple of milkshakes and a giant basket of onion rings at their table. "It's like Emma and Killian here are looking to break Snow and Charming's record for the Truest True Love couple ever." She winked at them before turning to the aforementioned couple, "And no offense, you two, but in _my_ book, these two have you beat. _Anyone_ who goes to hell and back for their lover is a champion in _my_ book. Oh!" She blew on her nails and brushed off her shoulder. "Look at that! That includes me!" She winked.

"Hey! _We_ went to hell too, you know!" Snow argued playfully.

"Yeah, but you went there _together_!" Red retorted with a laugh. " _She_ went there to get him, and _he_ literally came back _for_ her."

"Excuse me! _Nobody_ is going to beat my True Love's Kiss with her." Charming added with a smirk, jerking his thumb at Snow.

"Just you wait and see, Prince Charming. You're not the only charming one at this table." Red snorted.

"Why thank you, luv!" Killian beamed.

"Excuse _all_ of you!" Emma butt in with scowl, yanking the giant family-sized basket of onion rings over to her and claiming the whole thing for herself. "Killian and I are not trying the beat my parents, we're not trying to _be_ my parents, we don't want _anything_ to do with _any_ of that!"

"We don't?" Killian raised an eyebrow.

"No!" Emma retorted, popping an onion ring into her mouth and talking around it. "We just want a nice, _quiet_ life here at home! No danger, no villains, no sleeping curses, no need for True Love's kisses. Just our house by the sea, our white picket fence, our two-and-a-half kids, and our dog." Seeing the bubbles in her father's milkshake caused Emma's stomach to roll.

"Two-and-a-half kids?" Killian frowned in confusion.

"Curious way of describing it." Jekyll chimed in from where he was sat next to them.

"Describing what?" Killian asked.

"Well, isn't it-" Jekyll started, pointing to Emma in confusion.

"It's an expression." Snow explained, saving Emma the trouble of talking around the two onion rings, slathered in ketchup, that she just popped into her mouth. The onion rings were heavenly. The grease marks left on her fingers and the wax paper on the basket… not so much. Emma felt her mouth start to water (and not in the good way) as her gag reflex started acting up. "It's meant to be the embodiment of the American Dream, the stereotypical American Family—a husband, a wife, two to three kids, a house with a white picket fence, and a dog."

"Mmmm!" Charming blew bubbles into his milkshake in his efforts to pull away fast enough to make a comment. "The half-a-kid is just meant to reflect the average number of kids in each American family." The first bit of bile made its way into Emma's mouth at the sight of Charming's slimy, frothy milkshake bubbles.

"Yeah, two-and-a-half kids is the numerical average for all the families in this country." Snow nodded.

"Nobody actually has half-a-kid."

"Oh!" Jekyll nodded. "Silly me!" He chuckled, "I thought it referred to a woman's pregnancy." Killian's head shot towards him.

Emma dropped the basket of onion rings onto the table and shut her eyes tight, massaging her temple and forehead with her greasy fingers. "Are you alright, Emma?" Ruby inquired with a frown.

"We have the white-picket fence, though." Killian chimed in, still confused and eyeing Emma in concern. "I saw it around her house. _Our_ house."

"Yes, but what I think Emma was saying was that she just wanted a regular, normal, everyday 'American dream' type life without any excitement." Ruby explained. "Or villains. Or sleeping curses. Or the need for True Love's kisses."

Just then, Henry and Regina burst through the door and made a beeline for the Charmings' table. "Mom! You guys! You're never going to believe who mom and I just ran into!" Henry panted frantically, as if he just ran there from wherever he and Regina came from.

"Oh, lad, not again!" Killian groaned. Emma now had a mouthful of bile and half-chewed onion rings she didn't think she was capable of keeping in for much longer, especially now that Henry had just burst in with apparently urgent news.

"Who, Henry?" Charming pushed.

"Mr. Hyde." Regina answered grimly.

"Wa—wa—wa—wait, what? _WHAT?!_ " Jekyll stuttered, half-popping out of his seat and then sitting down just as quickly, his eyes darting around the room, on the lookout for his evil alter ego. "What? What?! What do you mean Mr. Hyde? Mr. Hyde is _here_?!" His eyes popped out of their sockets when both Regina and Henry nodded.

"Bloody hell." Killian sighed, putting an arm around Emma as he leaned back in his seat with the face of a man resigned to his fate, "There goes our two-and-a-half kids, luv." He murmured.

"What?" Henry frowned in confusion.

It was all Emma could take. In her haste to make it from her seat to the bathroom in time, Emma tipped the giant basket of onion rings, spilling the greasy treats, ketchup and ranch dressing all over the floor. She had to push Red, Regina _and_ Henry all out of her way, but at this point, she didn't care about what they would think. If she opened her mouth for formalities, she knew she would throw up all over whomever stood closest to her. So she just shoved them out of her way, threw the bathroom door open, slammed it behind her with enough force to rock the entire diner, and threw her head into the toilet just in time to lose her breakfast. Or lunch. Or whatever meal she had eaten last. She vomited until she could vomit no more, and she was left dry-heaving until her throat decided to give up the effort.

"Emma?" She heard her mother's voice before she heard the familiar footsteps, but with a single wave of her finger, Emma was able to lock her out of the room.

"I'm _fine_ , mom!" Emma said, as soon as she was able to catch her breath. Her highly nasal voice made her cringe, and the sensation of bile in her nose made her nauseous all over again. She yanked at the toilet paper to blow it out right when her mother knocked on the door.

"Are you sure?" Knock. Knock. "Are you okay?"

Emma rolled her eyes. She had _just_ answered that question! Yes, it was a lie, but _still_!

She blew her nose, wincing at the chunks of semi-digested food that flew out of it, and threw the wad into the bowl. " _Yes_ , Mom, I said I'm fine!" She hissed in return, proud that she managed to make herself sound semi-normal this time. "Just give me a little privacy, would you?" She flushed the toilet to try to prove her point, using the flusher to pull her to her feet as she did so.

"Okay. We'll be out here in case you need us." She heard Snow murmur through the door.

Emma felt the snark at the tip of her tongue. She really wanted to let it rip, but held herself back. Her mother, and everyone else out there, was not her concern right now. From what she heard about Mr. Hyde, he wouldn't be anything but a nuisance for her. A nuisance with _super-strength_ , but _she_ had magic! Super-strength was nothing against _her_! Snow, Charming, Regina and everyone else could handle Mr. Hyde. Emma had more important matters to take care of.

Emma looked at herself in the mirror and cringed at her reflection. Her hair was amok, her nose was red and stuffy, her eyes had rings around them, and she had a bit of drool on the corner of her mouth. "Ugh…" She turned on the faucet, determined to wash her face until she looked like a decent person again.

First things first—she needed to find out _for sure_ that it was true. And she needed to do it now. Her little mad-dash to the bathroom a while ago was bound to arouse suspicion, and if she _kept_ on doing it, then someone was bound to put the pieces together eventually, and Emma would be damned if Killian heard it from anyone else but her to start. Pulling out about sixty dollars from her wallet, she poofed the money into the register of the local pharmacy while simultaneously poofing every kind of pregnancy test they had in stock into the bathroom with her. This question was going to be answered once and for all, right now.

Half an hour, and some twenty positive pregnancy tests later, Emma was pretty sure she had her answer. She had tried ten different brands of pregnancy test _twice_ in order to ensure that she had it right. And they _all_ came out the same—positive. Not only that, but Emma was pretty sure she was showing already anyway. If she figured the conception was the night they had first made love, then Emma was about 4-5 months along right now. If the Dark One curse had suspended her pregnancy for the six to seven weeks she was the Dark One (which may or may not have been the case, considering the Darkness practically used her baby to manipulate her), then she'd only be around 3-4 months along right now. Emma figured the best assumption that she could make would be if she split the difference between the two possible timelines and went with the assumption that she was about 4 months along right now. Either way, she's not going to be able to hide this baby for very long, so she needed to tell Killian _now_!

Knock! Knock! Knock!

"Emma, luv, are you alright?" Killian's voice drifted in through the locked door. "You've been in there an awful long time, and Snow said she heard you retching a while ago. Do you need me to get you something, Swan?"

Emma took a deep breath and closed her eyes, trying to breathe in the strength to do what she had to do. Opening her eyes, she sniffed, stuffed the last pregnancy test into the paper bag she kept them in, and turned on the faucet to wash her hands. "No, it's okay, Killian. I'll be right out."

"Yes, Swan, but you didn't answer my question." Killian carried on the conversation as if there wasn't a door between them or six nosy ears eavesdropping on them from around the corner.

"Which was what, exactly?" Emma continued, shutting off the faucet and wiping her hands and face. She knew the answer to the question before she even asked it.

"Are you alright?"

There it was. Was she alright? She didn't know. _Was_ she alright? "Alright" was a relative term, wasn't it? Emma was _more_ than "alright", technically, but she wasn't "alright" right now, after just having lost the contents of her stomach due to the hormones the contents of her uterus were inducing.

"I'm fine for now, Killian." She settled for a half-truth, gripping the paper bag full of positive pregnancy tests tight in her hand before unlocking the door and pulling it open.

"And what about later?" Killian asked, his face etched with worry. "What about in general? You left rather quickly a while ago, Swan. Something wasn't right there."

Emma took a deep breath. Her clench on the paper bag tightened. "You're right. Something _wasn't_ right." She admitted, much to Killian's surprise. "But this is neither the time nor the place for us to discuss this."

"Then name the place because the time is right now." Killian declared. Now it was Emma's turn to raise an eyebrow in surprise.

"But what about Hyde?" She began to question.

"Jekyll, Regina, and your parents can handle him. _You_ need a break!" He grabbed her hand. "Come on!" He started pulling her towards the back door, but before either of them could take another step, they were both enveloped in a cloud of white smoke.


	2. Pilot Redux Ch 2: Telling the Boys

When the smoke cleared, they both found themselves standing upon the deck of the Jolly Roger.

Emma frowned in surprised. "O…kay." She eyed the deck of the ship and her surroundings suspiciously. "Weird…"

"Ah, it seems you read my mind, Swan!" Killian grinned at her. "I was going to walk you over here, but I appreciate the shortcut."

Emma's frown deepened. "Killian, I didn't poof us here." She explained. "I didn't even know where you were going to take me!"

Now it was Killian's turn to frown. "Well if you didn't transport us here, then who did?"

Emma eyed him up and down. She looked around to make sure that no one else was around them. She even stretched out her senses to try to sense the aura of other magical beings around her. She got a whole lot of _nothing_ except for when she looked at Killian. For some strange reason, Killian had a glowing aura around him that extended _far_ beyond his now-constantly-magical hook. His whole _being_ glowed, according to Emma's senses. And she found that _interesting_! It suddenly became clear to her which of them had actually done the transporting just now. But what she didn't know was _how_ he did it. Obviously, he had magic (and _powerful_ light magic, if her senses were any indication), but Killian clearly had no idea that that was the case, _and_ she no explanation to give him as to how that was. So she kept her thoughts to herself. "No idea." She lied with a shrug.

Killian groaned and rubbed his forehead with a sigh. "Well, this just keeps getting better and better!" Turning away from her, he headed towards the gangplank of the ship and pulled it back aboard. He didn't want anyone coming aboard while they were below, knocking on their door, and ruining their moment of quiet.

"Hey, look at the bright side, at least it's just Mr. Hyde." Emma shrugged, pulling the grate open and making her way down the steps to the Captain's cabin. "He only has, what? Super strength?" She scoffed. "That's nothing compared to the Evil Queen, and she's good and dead now, thanks to Regina."

"Don't jinx it, love." Killian warned her, pulling the grate closed behind him and locking the doors to their cabin.

"What's there to jinx? I saw her blow away in a cloud of ashes back in New York!" Emma explained, popping open two of the windows to air out the room, the paper bag still grasped firmly in her hand.

Killian shook his head and sighed.

"Okay, what?" Emma confronted him. "You had that _exact_ same reaction when we told you all about what mom, Regina and I all did on the roof that night. If you want to say something, Killian, just _say_ it!"

Killian frowned at her. "I could say that _exact_ same thing to you, Swan." He replied calmly.

"Fine!" Emma crossed her arms, subconsciously hugging the paper bag close to her chest. The way Killian's eyes quickly flicked down and then back up told her that the paper bag had not gone unnoticed by him. He probably took note at it back at Granny's, when she had first come out of the bathroom. "You go first!" She insisted.

Killian raised an eyebrow, but didn't argue. "I just don't think it's a good idea to separate a person's darkness from their light."

"Why not?" Emma's mouth dropped open. "You did it with _me_! You did it with _yourself_!"

"Yes, but that was different!"

" _How_?!"

"For starters, the Darkness that invaded the both of us was _not_ our own." Killian explained, "It was someone _else's_! It was tantamount to a possession by an external demon, Swan. _My own_ Darkness is still inside of me, just as your own is in you. When I took the Darkness out of you, I left _yours_ intact. Just as mine is intact inside of me."

"You didn't channel it out?" Emma questioned dubiously. "Your one shot at getting rid of the thing that was the bane of your existence for centuries—your dark side, your temper. The _one_ chance you had at channeling it out, and you didn't take it?"

"You're forgetting one thing, Emma." Killian replied. "That darkness inside of me is the _same_ thing that gives me strength." Emma's frown began to disappear. "Over the years, I've learned to harness my Darkness _for_ my Light. Without my Dark half, my Light half is nothing but a shell with no substance."

Emma's frown began to return. "Are you implying that Regina no longer has any substance?"

"I'm saying that you're probably going to find that she's not the same Regina anymore." Killian sighed. He was stuck between a rock and a hard place with this Regina situation. It was a bad idea all around, but nobody could tell those three women anything. If Snow, Emma _and_ Regina all wanted to do something, there was no stopping them. No matter how _stupid_ the idea was. And when _Dave_ wasn't even on his side, Killian had no hope of stopping _that_ particular train wreck, no matter what he said or did to try to get them to change their minds.

"Yeah! Now she's a _good_ person!"

"Now she's _half_ a person." Killian countered. And Emma couldn't find a good way to refute that argument.

"Well at least she's the _good_ half!" Emma retorted, unfolding her arms as she turned away.

Killian grunted noncommittally. "At the expense of what?" He muttered under this breath. With a shake of his head, he changed the subject. "There. Now I've said my piece. It's _your_ turn." He jerked his head towards the brown paper bag in her hand, which she was still holding onto for dear life.

Emma glanced briefly at the bag, before turning towards the window and throwing herself back onto the bed with a sigh. She grit her teeth and remained steadfastly silent.

"Oh, come on, Swan! You've been hiding something from me for _weeks_ now!" Emma's eyes flew to Killian in surprise. "Don't think I haven't noticed!"

He was right. Killian was _far_ more observant than she often gave him credit for, and he knew how to read people and stiuations just as well as she did, if not better, having spent the better part of a century or more dealing with the trickiest of trickers in all the realms, Peter Pan. Killian had something of sixth sense when it came to deception, tricks and manipulation, particularly when it involved a Dark One (or a close relative to a Dark One, like Hades). So it shouldn't have surprised her that he saw through her own deception just as easily as he saw through Hades' or Rumple's. Yet Killian had a trust in her that he didn't have in either of those two individuals, and so when he recognized that she wasn't being entirely truthful with him, he didn't _really_ push her on it, and instead waited for her to come around. Emma just didn't realize how _long_ he had recognized that she was keeping a secret from him. He apparently knew about her secret since before the Underworld, and he still didn't force it out of her during their goodbye conversation. He was content with leaving it at that—dying without knowing. "I... didn't think you did." She replied truthfully.

"You dont't give me enough credit, Swan." Killian sighed, plopping himself onto the bed next to her and leaning against the far wall. She felt his hook arm come around her, the tip of his hook resting comfortably at her side. Emma smiled to herself. The two of them were always on the same wavelength like that, often vocalizing what the other thought.

She shook her head and leaned into him, pulling her feet up to her chest and hugging her legs, the brown bag still fimly in her grip. The constant shifting of its contents clued Killian in as to the objects hidden within. He didn't know what they were _exactly_ , but whatever they were, there were a lot of them. And Emma was hesitant to tell him about them. "What's this about, Swan?" He asked gently, hoping that maybe making her feel comfortable and loved would make her open up enough to him. He wanted to let her know that he was going to be there for her, no matter what. Hell, not even _death_ managed to do them part this time around. "Whatever it is, I _told_ you you can tell me." Killian insisted. "After what the two of us just lived through, I guarantee you _nothing_ can ever come between us, ever."

Emma groaned, burying her face into his shoulder. Sure, that's what he said _now_ , but what about later? After he found out what she just put their baby through (knowingly and unknowingly)? Would he be so forgiving of her then? And Emma still didn't know if the Darkness did anything to damage her baby. What if it did? What if her baby was a mini-Dark One in the making? What if the damage was somehow irreversible? What would he do then? Would he still want the child? Would he still want _her_? Neal didn't want anything to do with her (and thus their son) after he found out his father, the Dark One, had something to do with Emma. Would Killian react the same way?

"You know, luv, worrying in circles about it in your head is not going to do either of us any good." Killian broke into her thoughts, somehow aware of all the excuses that were popping into her mind as she tried to convince herself that she needed to wait a little longer to tell him. "All secrets come out eventually, Swan, despite our best efforts to keep them buried." He murmured, a pensive note to his tone. There were some secrets that Emma knew that _he_ wished would stay buried, but he told her anyway, despite his obvious fear that she would pull away from him if she ever found out. He trusted her not to walk away then, during their intimate pillow talks at the start of their relationship, back when they had six weeks of quiet and the two of them finally had a chance to breathe and really get to know each other. He had trusted her back then with his secrets, showing his faith in her and in the strength of their relationship. She needed to learn to give back to him what he put out to her. And that extended beyond "simply" following him to hell and back.

"Well, this isn't really a secret I can keep buried forever." Emma murmured, turning her face away from his shoulder and settling for lying upon it, her eyes focused on the bookcase across the cabin. "And I kind of don't want to..." She stuttered, "Keep it, that is." She shut her eyes and shook her head. That wasn't what she meant! "I mean... I want to _keep_ it, but I don't want to keep the secret."

Killian frowned in confusion but didn't interrupt her. Now that he got her talking, he didn't want her to stop until it was all out in the open.

"I've _wanted_ to tell you for the longest time about it, but I just..." Emma sighed in frustration, "I never knew _how_ to do it! I mean, first there was the Darkness thing, and then you were dying, and then you found out what I did in Camelot, and then it _really_ wasn't a good time to tell you! And then you _died_ , and I… I didn't want to tell you in the Underworld because I was afraid you'd stop me from splitting my heart with you, and then…" She raised her head off his shoulder and took a deep breath, leaning it against the wall behind her and focusing her eyes on the ceiling. She wanted to look anywhere but directly at him, "…and then you couldn't come back with us, and not matter _how_ much I wanted to tell you then, I knew that if you knew, you'd always have it on your mind, and it would always be your Unfinished Business, and I didn't want you to stay in that _horrible_ place forever, so I…" Emma swallowed and shut her eyes to keep the tears from falling, "…I didn't tell you. I made you promise to move on. I wanted what was _best_ for you! Just like you wanted what was best for us…" Just recalling their goodbyes to each other in the Underworld was enough reduce Emma to a crying mess again, even though they had gotten over that particular hurdle and he was right back by her side, where he belonged.

Killian pulled her closer to his side and kissed her temple in comfort. Emma's particular use of words just then intrigued him—"you wanted what was best for _us_ ". While, yes, it was true that Killian wanted what was best for Emma _and_ her family (Henry, in particular), because he considered them _his_ family as well, something told him that Emma's use of "us" in this case referred to something else entirely. It was something a _little_ more personal than her extended family. The way she said "us" gave Killian the sense that she was talking about _their_ family—him, her, and Henry. Killian leaned his forehead against her temple and closed his eyes. He said nothing to voice his curiosity. He merely let her continue.

Emma swallowed again and swiped at the falling tears with her free hand. "And then you came back!" Try as she might, Emma couldn't help the giant smile that erupted across her face when she said it, and just like that, her flip switched from depressed to happy, though the tears kept falling either way. "But then I was afraid of what _Regina_ would think! And so the first thing on my mind was getting _that_ conversation out of the way. And then the whole thing with Rumple happened, and the crystal, and Henry, and New York, and then you and my parents and Zelena disappeared into that other realm, and then Henry killed magic, and then we were _all_ concerned about getting it back, so that I could get you back, and…"

"And then it happened." Killian helped her along gently.

"And then it happened, and Regina got rid of the Evil Queen, and now we're home. But now Jekyll—"

"No!" Killian shook his head and tried to steer her back to the topic at hand lightly, "No, nonononononononono, no… Shhhhh…" He kissed her temple a second time, "Jekyll and Hyde and everybody else have nothing to do with this. You said so yourself, Swan, the only thing that bloke has is super strength. _I've_ handled him before, Regina is good now, you've said so yourself! _She_ can handle him without our help. Jekyll will get over it. Hyde is nothing but a nuisance to us. _Please_ …" He kissed her temple a third time, and then followed it up with a forehead kiss, "Please, just tell me what's wrong."

Emma's eyes shot open at the wrong conclusion Killian was jumping to, and she took a deep, shuddery breath as she turned to him, "No! No… Nothing's _wrong_ , Killian." She assured him.

Killian graced her with a look of confusion. "Then why do you feel the need to hide this from me?"

Emma swallowed and turned away, looking at the bag in her hands and loosening her grip on it for the first time since she left the bathroom. She laid it on her lap and futzed with one of its wrinkled edges. "Because of Neal." She replied.

Killian frowned, even more confused than ever. "Baelfire?!" He repeated, unsure of what Bae had to do with any of this.

"Yeah, he…" Emma cleared her throat, trying to figure out how to tell him about her final layer of armor and why it was there, "…he never came back the first time, so I…" she shrugged, "…I didn't know how to do this. I didn't know how… you would be. How you'd react."

Killian sighed and shook his head. Of course she would compare him to Baelfire. Their _entire_ relationship, at the start of it, was him versus Baelfire. Emma had to choose between them. They had competed against each other for her affections. She shared a son with him, so Bae was always going to have that "advantage" over him. Somewhere down the line, though, Killian realized that he didn't want _his own_ relationship with Baelfire to fall by the wayside over a woman (even if that woman was Emma), so he took himself out of their little "competition". If Emma wanted him, she would let him know that (and she would let Bae know that as well). And _that's_ really what Killian was after—a woman who _wanted_ _ **him**_. So Killian figured that if it was meant to be, then she would come to chase _him_ eventually, despite Baelfire's efforts. And that's what happened. But considering Baelfire was her first love, just like Milah was his, it was inevitable that she was going to find herself comparing _everything_ about him to Baelfire at some point. Killian too found himself comparing Emma to Milah more often than not, but he put a lot of effort into _not_ doing that, just as he knew Emma _usually_ put a lot of effort into _not_ comparing him to Bae. If she couldn't help but do it this time, then whatever news this was must be something big, and it was making her incredibly emotional.

"Emma," Killian broke in gently, and her eyes focused on him, probably grateful for the distraction, "You and I… just like Ruby put it so _eloquently_ a while ago… just went to hell and back for each other. You went _**TO**_ hell for me, and I came _**BACK**_ from hell for you and Henry. So _please_ , love…" he took the hand closest to him, "… _Death_ tried to do us part, and it didn't succeed. If _Death_ couldn't do us part, what can?"

Emma shrugged and dropped her eyes to the bag in her lap, "I don't know… life?" She raised her gaze back to his face, her forehead scrunched up in worry and an air of nervous anticipation about her.

Now… Killian prided himself in his status as a pirate captain. One did not achieve the status of "Captain" in the pirate community without knowing how to lead. And one did not lead in the pirate community without knowing how to read all kinds of people and situations, and recognize clues that different people drop as to how to _handle_ specific situations. So just like Killian's ears perked up on Emma's use of the word "us" earlier in the conversation, so too did his ears perk up at her use of the word "life".

"Life?" He repeated.

"Life." Emma echoed, her voice tense and a little bit scared.

That was _definitely_ a big clue as to what was going on here. And Killian had an inkling as to where this was going. Suddenly, Emma's reaction to Jekyll's words in the diner started making sense. As well as her retching episode in the head earlier. "Swan… if death didn't do us part, you think life would?"

"Depends on the kind of life." She replied quickly, biting her lip as she waited for him to 'get it'.

"Life brought us _together_ , Emma." Killian reminded her, looking deep into her eyes, "And we're going to _stay_ together, _no matter what_." He assured her, not once looking away. "Come hell, come high water, or come…" Letting go of her hand, he reached into the bag and his fingers grasped one of the sticks he _figured_ was in there, "…our child."

Emma released the breath she didn't know she had been holding. Shutting her eyes, she leaned her head back against the wall of the cabin before letting it collapse on his shoulder again and getting herself comfortable. It turns out she had been fearing his reaction for nothing. Meanwhile, Killian pulled his hand out of the bag, one of the sticks grasped firmly in his palm. He had seen the sticks before at the local apothecary that Emma called the "pharmacy".

He had been in there because Henry was taking a "sex-ed" class in school, and one of the assignments was to investigate and write about the different kinds of birth control—how many kinds there were, whether they can be bought in a store or taught in a classroom, etc. Henry had asked Killian about it because it was the _one_ conversation he didn't want to have with either of his moms, and his grandfather had merely stuttered in his attempts at explaining it to him, so Henry had come to Killian and the pair of them had a long and thorough conversation about sex and abstinence and peer pressure and the methods of preventing pregnancy (that Killian knew of from his days in the Enchanted Forest) and whatnot. Then Killian had accompanied Henry to the pharmacy where Henry explained to Killian the different methods of birth control in _this_ realm, including the use of condoms, which were apparently the most popular method of birth control in this realm, though Swan had yet to introduce them to him at all. And _that's_ when he saw the small section of the aisle dedicated to pregnancy tests. While Henry busied himself with talking to the pharmacist and filling in his worksheet, Killian bided his time reading the backs of the different boxes, and even taking a peek into some of them to see what they looked like. There were ten different "brands", if he remembered correctly.

The stick he held in his hand right now was one of the easier tests to read, though Killian had no doubt that Emma took all of them (the clear ones _and_ the confusing ones alike) twice in order to be absolutely sure of the results. And going by Emma's deathlike grip on the bag of tests when she came out of the head, Killian had little doubt that they all said the exact same thing—"Pregnant".

Killian couldn't help the smile that erupted across his face upon reading that word. The tiny laugh that also managed to escape betrayed his elation. It also brought Emma back to herself.

She looked up at him to find a face alight with joy, "So… you're not mad?"

Killian's gaze shot to her in surprise. "Mad?" He furrowed his eyebrows and shook his head in confusion, "Why would I be mad, Swan?"

"I don't know…" Emma shrugged, turning her gaze away and worrying at a loose thread on his jeans. "Neal was."

The captain huffed in mild annoyance, "First of all, I'm _not_ Neal," Emma practically winced. She knew it was stupid to compare the two men. She often tried to avoid it, but she couldn't help it this time, considering Neal was the only experience she had when it came to being pregnant and sharing a kid with someone, and that whole thing wasn't exactly an experience to remember. "And second of all, the circumstances are different."

"Are they?" Emma could count the ways in which the circumstances were similar. She _did_ send Killian to "jail" after all, for something that _she_ did, no less. The difference was _he_ came back for them whereas Neal didn't. And Emma came back _for_ him, whereas Neal didn't for her. And the both of them had gone on a bit of "crime spree" just like she and Neal did the first time, except the two of them were Dark Ones rather than thieves, and it was Emma who turned _Killian_ to the dark side rather than the other way around, like it had been with Neal. And Emma had waited to tell Killian, which… wasn't quite the same as Emma never intending to tell Neal.

"How long have you known?" He asked, thumbing the indicator on the pregnancy test reverently.

"Ever since I became the Dark One."

Killian blinked, and Emma tensed at his momentary hesitation, trying to guess its meaning. Did the Dark One stuff suddenly change his mind about the baby? "So why didn't you tell me back then?" He continued.

"Because, I… was a Dark One." Emma cringed at the excuse. Saying it out loud just made it sound dumb. "And you _hated_ Dark Ones!"

"Dark One or not, I love _you_!" He reminded her.

"I know! I know…" She sighed. "I was just… scared." She admitted, figuring it was useless to try to bullshit a human lie detector. "I said I'd tell you after the Sorcerer got the Darkness out of me. But then _you_ did that, and then you died, and then…" Her thoughts took a detour for a quick second when she said those two things together out loud—being told that only the Sorcerer could take the Darkness out of her, and then Killian achieving that feat himself. _Interesting_. She thought, suddenly remembering the poofing incident from a few minutes ago. A nudge from Killian got her back on track, though. "Then I figured if I told you in the Underworld, you'd try to stop me from splitting my heart—"

"So you figured you'd take that choice away from me?" Emma sighed and sat up, figuring this was one bull she had to take by the horns. She _knew_ he would be bitter about this aspect of it.

"See, _that's_ why I didn't want to tell you, Killian!" She argued. Yes, it was wrong of her to try to manipulate his decision by not giving him all the facts, but damn it, she just wanted him _back_! She wanted her _whole_ family back!

"So you could get your way. Emma…" Killian, as usual, called her bullshit, much to her annoyance. Yet he somehow didn't sound as mad as he did in her head. He simply sighed and reached over, pulling her onto his lap. Emma wrapped an arm around his shoulders for balance, while taking the comfort he was offering her, "…this isn't just about you being pregnant. I never wanted _you_ to come down there for me in the first place. I never wanted _you_ to put _yourself_ in that kind of danger for me." He explained.

"You wouldn't have been able to stop me if you tried, Killian." She retorted.

"I know!" Killian scoffed. "Believe it or not, I _know_ you, Swan." He smirked. "That's why I didn't put up much of a fight when you tried to split your heart with me."

Emma studied him cautiously. "Would you have fought harder if you knew I was pregnant?"

"Yes." He admitted without a second thought. Emma shouldn't have expected any less of him. "But would you have backed down at all?"

"Are you _kidding_ me?!" Now it was Emma's turn to scoff. "My mom was _pregnant_ when she split her heart with my dad! That's what I was _counting_ on! We were both in the same boat!" She explained, glad to have finally said that to _someone_! It was killing her to not have anyone to explain her ideas to. She couldn't tell her mom about her pregnancy yet because she had yet to tell Killian, and she couldn't tell Killian about it because… well… because!

"Mm-hmm." Killian chuckled, pulling her closer.

"So you would have let me try it anyway?" Emma asked curiously.

Killian sighed. "Emma… you're going to do what you wish, regardless of what I have to say about it." Emma opened her mouth to protest, "I don't control you, Swan, no more than you control me—"

"You control me _plenty_ , you just don't know how." She retorted.

"I could say the same thing about you." Killian didn't need an explanation. He understood how. "And _maybe_ you control me a little bit more than I do you."

Emma groaned. She recognized an admonishment when she heard one. Killian had a way of yelling at people without actually yelling. And it was a method he only used whenever it involved her and Henry. Most of the time, she only heard it when he was disciplining Henry—the gentle rebuke, the soft scolding, followed closely by a quiet correction, meant to emphasize the lesson. It was extraordinarily rare that he used the gentle stuff on her. When the two of them went at it, they went at it at full volume, much to the unease of her parents, who were usually in the room but torn as to whom they wanted to side with (or if they even wanted to jump into the fray). Henry was practically the only person who never saw them yelling at each other (they were _very_ careful to make sure that he wasn't in the room whenever it happened). But now here he was using the gentle stuff on her. And Emma knew Killian well enough to recognize that it wasn't because he was being patronizing. It was because he was _really_ irritated at her for having done it. If there was one thing that Killian hated, it was being controlled and manipulated by _any_ means (including the willful withholding of critical facts regarding the decisions that he makes).

"Alright," Emma conceded, "I should've told you about it earlier. _Even though_ you _just_ admitted that it wouldn't have changed your mind!" She couldn't help but get the last word out.

"No, it wouldn't have changed _your_ mind." Killian corrected her. "And I would've appreciated knowing earlier so that you wouldn't have had to go through everything alone." He explained. What really got to him was that Emma practically suffered in silence these past few weeks.

"But I _didn't_ go through it alone!" She argued, reminding him, "I had _you_ there, by my side, the whole time!"

Killian shook his head. "Do you remember what I told you in Camelot? About how to make your demons go away?"

"That I should trust you with my burden." She nodded, "And it'll leave no room for him in my head."

"Seems like you had plenty of voices in your head about this recently." Killian pointed out. "We could've gone through it _together_. Like we do everything." Emma detected a hint of hurt in his voice and suddenly realized that part of the reason for his irritation was because he had missed out on some of the first moments of fatherhood—the opportunity to help her through her early pregnancy and help relieve some of her stress.

Emma smiled at that and reached down to grab his hand. This was the first time she had someone to lean on for her pregnancy, so it would be a new experience for the both of them. However, Emma felt like it was something she could easily get used to. "Oh, believe me, we've been doing a lot of things together already. All those food runs I had you do for grilled cheese and onion rings? Even the ones in the middle of the night when you actually had to make them yourself?"

Killian raised an eyebrow. "Pregnancy cravings?"

"Pregnancy cravings." Emma nodded. "Apparently, _this_ little one," she put both their hands atop her tiny baby bump, "likes salty food."

Killian smiled down at the hand that lay atop Emma's belly. His little one. _Their_ little one. Their child. Their future. He rubbed the barely-there bump gently, feeling Emma's thumb repeat the same comforting gesture atop his hand. "Do you now?" He whispered softly, "Well then, you're going to _love_ the taste of fish when you get older." Emma made a face. "And the smell of the sea. And the salt as the ocean sprays your face."

Emma chuckled. "You're turning him into a little pirate already?"

"Him?" Killian raised an eyebrow, a smirk tugging at the corner of his lips.

"Or her." Emma corrected. "We won't know for sure until we have an ultrasound."

"Well, boy _or_ girl, you just make sure you behave for mummy, you hear?" He pat her tummy gently before moving his hand away. " _Has_ it been behaving?"

"Aside from an hour ago, when my stomach decided to make up for lost time, it's been a surprisingly smooth early pregnancy." She admitted. "I've only thrown up a handful of times since we conceived, and all those times, interestingly, were when you were out of the house. Or…hotel room. Or…off the ship, or whatever." Emma giggled, "So, apparently, he only behaves for you. So now I'm jealous."

Killian laughed, "Or _maybe_ … _she's_ a daddy's girl."

"Ugh, god…" Emma rolled her eyes, "I think I'd prefer we have a boy, if that's gonna be the case."

"Mom?! Killian?!" Henry's familiar squeaky voice echoed through the grate and the open windows. "Are you guys in there?!"

"Speaking of our boy…" Killian chuckled as he released Emma and they both climbed off the bed.

"Yeah, Henry, we're here!" Emma returned with a smile, going over to the dresser to find a sweater to throw on before heading up to deck.

"You guys aren't doing anything that will traumatize me for life, are you? Because I'm coming aboard!"

"Oh, you are, are you?" Killian broke in, climbing up the ladder and back onto the deck to spy the boy standing where the gangplank was _usually_ situated. He obviously noticed that Killian had withdrawn the gangplank, for he was eyeing one of the ropes that tied the Jolly to the dock with extreme interest, as if he wanted to try making his way across, like a monkey, to board the ship. At the sound of his boots hitting the deck, Henry's attention was immediately drawn back to him. "Forgetting something are we, lad?"

Henry smirked. Killian was nothing if not a stickler for manners and common courtesy, especially when his ship (and his mother) was concerned. Clicking his heels together, Henry stood up straight, pinned his arms to his sides, and balled his hands into loose fists in the classic pose of Attention. "Permission to come aboard, Captain!"

"Permission granted!" Killian replied with a grin, yanking on the rope that flipped the gangplank back down so that Henry could climb on. "But before you do that, loosen all the lines and then scurry aboard." He instructed him.

"Are we going out on a day trip?" Henry's eyes lit up in excitement and he hurried to do what he was told.

"Just a short one. Your mother and I want to talk to you." As soon as Henry was on board, he pulled the plank back in and started weighing the anchor.

Henry frowned at him. "Wait a minute… I'm not in trouble, am I?"

"No, you're not in trouble." Killian assured him.

"Although, I _do_ have quite a few things to say about your little running away to New York." Emma commented as she came out of the captain's cabin, a windbreaker over her leather jacket.

"Ugh, mom!" Henry groaned, "What do you want me to say? I already told you I was sorry!"

"All the same, you shouldn't have done it." Emma continued.

"I know!" Henry acknowledged softly, trying to stop the lecture before it started. He just wanted to drop this topic altogether. He already got an earful of this from both his mothers, his grandparents _and_ Killian back in New York. He didn't want to have to go through it again. "I know. I shouldn't have done it. I'm sorry. I _promise_ you, I won't do it again. Now, please, the last few weeks have just _really_ sucked for all of us. Can we just drop this and have a nice, peaceful, relaxing sailing day?" He pleaded, throwing in a charming smile for good measure.

Emma exchanged a glance with Killian, her gaze narrowed as she eyed him suspiciously. He merely gave her a lopsided grin in return. That tone (and that smile) Henry just used was the _exact_ same one Killian used on her whenever _he_ wanted her to drop an issue they'd already discussed to death. It never worked with Killian, and it _certainly_ wasn't going to work with Henry. "Yeah, sure, we can have a nice, peaceful, relaxing sailing day." She nodded, and then waited for Henry to visibly relax before dropping the other shoe, "But don't think I've forgotten about your punishment."

Henry's eyes widened in alarm, "Punishment?!"

"You didn't think you could get away scot-free for running away, did you?" Emma scoffed.

"You never punished me before!" Henry argued.

"And therein lay the problem!" She grinned mercilessly at him.

"Wha—Wha—" Henry turned to Killian for support, but found none.

"Actions have consequences, lad." He explained with a shrug.

"Yeah! I trapped you guys in another realm, but I _fixed_ that!" The teenager explained in a panic.

"Henry, _relax_!" Emma shushed him gently, running her hands down his arms to grip his forearms in comfort. "A few extra chores are not going to kill you."

"Especially when they involve helping me maintain this ship." Killian added. Henry pouted regardless. "Now come on! Help me loose and tie down some of the lower canvas. I want to check on your knot work." The captain handed Henry his harness. "Have you been practicing?"

"Yeah…" Henry replied, subdued. His shoulders were slumped as he took the harness from Killian and walked towards the rope ladder to help loosen some of the lower sails from the top.

The couple watched him go in concern. Emma tightened her windbreaker around her. "How do you think he'll take it?" She murmured softly.

"He'll be fine, luv, you'll see." He reassured her, dropping a kiss onto her temple before hurrying off to finish the procedures that would get them out of port and headed towards the open ocean.

Forty-five minutes later, the Jolly was anchored a good distance from the shore, but with a nice view of the town and surrounding forest. Emma did what she could to help on deck, going from what she remembered doing when she had helped sail the ship to Neverland, but her knowledge of sailing tall ships wasn't as advanced as Henry's. The kid spent every waking moment he could on the Jolly (or some other tall ship in the harbor), and the things Killian had taught him far exceeded the stuff he had taught her in Neverland. Henry was able to tie complicated knots she couldn't _dream_ of mastering within sixty seconds before moving on to the next one, and his knowledge of what to do next, without being told by Killian, left her feeling unneeded on deck. So she ventured down to the galley to wrestle them up something to eat. She figured food would help soften whatever slight Henry could dream up in learning he now expected a sibling. Killian had already ensured that he wouldn't be able to run away from them if he wanted to. Not without having to swim a mile to the shore, which neither of them would allow.

When the boys dropped anchor and settled in to their spot, Emma conjured a table and chairs for three onto the deck and brought the lunch up from below. She made sure that Henry had a "growing boy's portion", as Killian put it, which was double their usual, and Killian made sure that _she_ had the same amount as well, even though it only left him with a meager half-a-sandwich. "Let it be, luv, go on! Eat up!" He insisted when Emma frowned at him. "We've got fishing lines in the water right now. It won't be long until we catch some. _You_ need the food as well."

"Mom doesn't usually eat _that_ much Killian." Henry commented through a mouthful of food.

"Don't talk with your mouth full." The captain replied absentmindedly, pushing a half-sandwich, which Emma tried to give him, back onto her plate with his hook. "Your mother needs just as much nutrition now as you do."

"She needs a growing boy's portion?" Henry questioned.

"Aye."

"Why?" He looked between them curiously.

Emma and Killian both recognized it as the _perfect_ time to segue into what they wanted to tell Henry, so they stopped their game of musical sandwich and turned to him immediately, both their mouths open, ready to blurt it out. Then, simultaneously, they both closed their mouths and turned to each other, suddenly unsure as to how they wanted to do this. "Um…" Emma mumbled.

"You, see, Henry… the, uh—"

"What we wanted to tell you was… Um…"

"Your mother isn't the _only_ one who needs that extra food."

"Yeah, there's…someone else…" She exchanged a worried look with Killian, "…who does too." She turned back to Henry and bit her lip, waiting for him to understand her meaning.

"Someone else?" Henry echoed, trying to process what his mother was telling him, "Someone _else_?" He looked between her and Killian and back in confusion.

"Emma, luv…" Killian reached for her hand and grasped it in support, "Say it out loud." He advised her, "You can do it."

Emma took a deep breath and reached for Henry's hand, which he automatically gave her, complete with a look of concern. "Henry…" she looked deep into her little boy's eyes, "…I'm pregnant."

Slowly… _Ever_ so slowly, Henry's eyes widened in shock and his mouth dropped open. "You're… You're pregnant?!"

Emma gave him a shaky smile, her stomach in knots over his uncertain reaction, "Yeah, kid." She gripped his hand harder, trying to exude confidence and happiness when all she felt were nerves. "You're gonna be a big brother!" She tried pointing out some of the perks of what was about to happen.

Unfortunately, it still didn't break Henry out of his stupor. "You alright, lad?" Killian tried, running his thumb along Emma's fingers in comfort. She already had a death-like grip on his hand.

"Yeah! Uh…" Henry's gaze flicked between her and Killian and back. He gave her a smile that didn't quite reach his eyes, "That's great, mom! I'm happy for you." He turned to Killian, "For the both of you." Balling up his napkin, he threw it on his plate, and was about to get up when Killian's voice stopped him.

"Hold on!" The captain held out an arm to block his path and nodded for him to retake his seat, "You neither asked for permission to be excused, nor did either of us give it to you. Now, come on." Henry fell back onto his seat with a sigh, leaned back and focused his eyes on what _was_ a great lunch. "What is it, my boy?"

"Yeah, Henry," Emma eyed him sadly, her hand still stretched out in yearning for his, "Let's talk about this."

Henry sighed and grimaced, seeing no way out of his current situation. The pair of them had orchestrated it _too_ well. "I don't know. I just…" He turned to his mother, "You're obviously keeping the baby this time. You obviously… want it."

"I wanted you too!" Emma argued, reaching over and taking his limp hand in her own, squeezing it to try to convey her love and support, "I really did! Henry… giving you up was the _hardest_ decision I made in my life."

"I know." Henry nodded. And he really _did_ understand Emma's reasoning for it. She wanted what was best for him. He understood back then, and he still understood now. "I just… have these memories in my head of when you kept me, and… when you didn't." His forehead furrowed in confusion because _both_ sets were very real to him, even though he knew the happier set was fake, "And I love the ones… that are false." His voice cracked.

"They're not false to me!" Emma assured him, shaking his hand to try to convince him of that.

"And I hate the ones that are real!"

"You don't have to accept the ones that are real, lad." Killian broke in, "No more than you have to accept that the ones with Emma are false."

"But wouldn't that be denying reality?" Henry argued, "She _did_ give me up."

"For good reason." Killian nodded.

"And I _did_ spend ten years living with the Evil Queen."

"Then accept that as reality." The captain conceded, "But you don't have to accept that the memories you have of growing up with Emma are false." He explained, "It's like the tales in your book, lad. That story had to come from _somewhere_." The boy turned his gaze back to the table to ponder that, "They're real _somewhere else_. So they don't have to be any less real to you."

"Believe you me, Henry, if I could make that choice again, I'd keep you in a heartbeat." Emma continued. "And that's the life we would've lived if I just had the strength to do it."

Henry's gaze shot to her, and his hand returned her squeeze for the first time since they started the conversation, "You're the strongest woman I know, mom!" He assured her.

"I wasn't always."

"You were _to me_." Henry insisted, shaking her hand with the same vigor she shook his. " _Always_." Emma graced him with a watery smile. Biting his lip, the teen turned to Killian, and the captain immediately knew that it was _his_ turn to deal with the issues. "Just… promise me, this won't change what we have."

"Absolutely not!" Killian replied, slightly offended that Henry would even think that. "You'll always be my boy, Henry. _My_ boy!" He put emphasis on the word.

"What he means is you'll always be…h-his..." Emma hesitated, unsure of how to proceed. She looked to Killian, because the subject of Neal between him and Henry was extremely personal and had to be worked out between them.

Killian, for his part, was just as unsure as Emma, "M... My..." The captain cleared his throat. How should he put this so that Henry wouldn't feel like he was trying to replace Neal, when Killian had no intention of that at all? "In my eyes," He began again, "You'll always be _my..._ son." He figured the truth was the best way to go. Henry kept staring at him intently, studying his every feature as he spoke, as if trying to find the lie in his words. "I know I will never be your only fa-father." Killian had to fight to keep in his own emotions because now Henry's stoicism was affecting _him_ , "And I would never _dream_ of replacing Neal in your life. But _you_... You will _always_ be my firstborn son. "

Henry continued to eye him suspiciously. But Killian was beginning to see the small rays of hope breaking through the cool exterior. Like his mother, Henry was trying to protect himself from rejection by Killian, looking for a lie where there was only truth, so that he wouldn't get his hopes up only to be hurt later on. "You promise?" He asked shakily.

"Henry, do you know what Killian said a while ago, when you first called to us from the dock?" Emma broke in, shaking Henry's hand in order to get his attention. The teen's eyes focused on her, his gaze getting more and more watery by the second. "We were talking about whether this baby was a boy or a girl, and then you called out to us, and you know what Killian said?" Henry shook his head, casting a furtive glance at the pirate captain.

"I said, 'Speaking of our boy...'" Killian filled in.

" _Our_ boy, Henry." Emma emphasized, "As in mine _and_ his. And you weren't there to hear it, so he's not just saying that for you."

"I mean it, lad." Killian nodded, placing his hook atop Henry's free hand. "I promise you—this baby won't change a _thing_ between us."

The teen looked down at his hook and smirked a little bit, "So we'll still have our day trips? Just you and me?"

"I am going to look _forward_ to our day trips, just you and me. Especially after the baby's born, and I can't get a wink of sleep at home."

Henry snorted and Emma turned to Killian, affronted, "Excuse you!" She slapped his shoulder and Henry laughed.

"Calm down, luv, you can have your lasses nights out with your mother and such, whilst David, Wee Bae, Henry, our wee one and I _all_ have a lads night in. I think that's a fair enough trade, no?" He raised an eyebrow at Henry, who smirked.

"Do we know for sure that it's a boy?" The teen questioned, the smile back on his face as he began to stuff his mouth with his half-eaten sandwich once again.

"We don't know anything _for sure_ yet." Emma answered, resuming her earlier game of musical sandwich and shoving a half-sandwich back onto Killian's platter. He quickly relocated it onto Henry's, who just as quickly threw one back onto Emma's platter. "Ugh! You guys!" She griped, throwing her head back and rolling her eyes in frustration.

"Give it up, Swan." Killian chuckled.

"You're teaching him this, Killian! I blame you!" Emma threw a playful scowl at him.

"My teaching our son to be a gentleman is a bad thing now, is it?" The captain snorted as he stood up from his seat. He ruffled Henry's hair as he passed by, and the teen basked at the praise he was receiving. "If it is, then I'll _not_ be apologizing for it." Emma rolled her eyes.

"Hey! Where're ya going? I thought nobody could get up from the table!" Henry complained.

"No, _you_ couldn't get up from the table." Emma explained with a smile. "You didn't ask to be excused."

"I'm going to check on our fishing lines so your mother will stop shoving sandwiches in my face, and we _all_ can have more food." The captain explained as he made his way to the back of the ship, where their fishing lines were secured to the railing.

"So how are we gonna tell everyone else?" Henry asked excitedly. Emma was relieved. _This_ was the boy she was used to—the mile-a-minute pace of his talking, the light in his eyes, and the humongous grin on his face. "Ooooo! I know! We can have a party at Granny's! Invite everyone to come and eat, and then we can tell them! It can also be like one of those gender-revealing parties too! Only… we reveal you're _having_ a baby first. _And then_ we reveal its gender."

"Whoa, kid!" Emma chuckled. "I don't even know if it's far enough along to _have_ a sex yet." She explained. "I figured I _got_ pregnant… sometime around when we had those six weeks of silence? You remember?"

"When Grandpa was out-of-town?" Henry nodded.

"Out-of-town… sure." Emma shook her head. "And… then… I became the Dark One shortly after that, and… that's kind of where things get iffy."

"Why do you mean?" Henry asked worriedly, "Did the Dark One affect the baby?!"

"No, I… don't think so." At least, she _hoped_ that was the case. "But…I _did_ stop aging for about six to seven weeks."

"So the _baby_ may have stopped growing." The teen tried to understand what she was getting at.

"I don't know for sure. That may be the case, or it may not."

"But the Dark One didn't do anything to it, did it? I mean… it didn't infect it or anything?"

"I don't think so." Emma shook her head. "It was already there before the Dark One got in there." She explained, "And the Dark One… it's like a demon that invades your soul and _tempts_ you, but it can't do anything to your body."

"It influences the outside world through temptation of the soul it inhabits." Killian continued, coming to the table with three big fish attached to a line. "The only way it causes damage is if _we_ let it, and I guarantee you, your mother would never let it cause permanent damage to either of you."

"But you said so yourself, it inhabits souls." Henry frowned, "What if it inhabited the baby's soul?"

"If it did, it's gone now. I took it out, remember? All of the Darkness." The captain replied, "It's all back in Rumple again," he turned away to mutter under his breath, "where it belongs."

"Maybe you should have a check-up or something… just to make sure." Henry sent a pleading look to his mom.

"I wholeheartedly agree." Emma nodded and saw Killian do the same. "In fact… why don't we do it today?" She smiled. Once they got back to shore, Emma wanted to do her best to make the Jekyll/Hyde situation someone _else's_ problem for now, and the best way she knew to do that was to make _herself_ scarce and let them solve it on their own. They did well enough without her in that other land. They can do well enough without her now, in their _own_ land. Emma had more important issues to handle than some dude with super strength and a temper. It was all quiet on the Storybrooke Front now that the Evil Queen was vanquished, and for the first time, Emma was going to take Killian's advice and enjoy her quiet moments. She was going to enjoy this pregnancy, this second chance at happiness, if it was the last thing she did! "Why don't you and Killian cook up that fish for the three of us, I'll call the hospital and make an appointment for this afternoon, and then after we eat, we'll head back to port, and then you can come with us while I get an ultrasound."

"Sweet!" Henry grinned, grabbing the fish from Killian's hook and heading down to the galley, "Come on, Killian! I'm hungry!"

"Wait… what's an ultrasound?" The pirate asked as he got up to follow him, confused.

"It's a picture of the baby inside of mom!" The boy explained, his voice echoing as he descended below deck.

"You mean like the picture of Zelena's insides?" Emma heard the older man continue, causing her to giggle. "Like the one on Robin's talking phone?"

"Killian, whatever you're talking about sounds disgusting."

"Well, what are _you_ talking about? Swan! What is he talking about?!"

Ignoring them, Emma pulled her cell phone out of her pocket and dialed Storybrooke General Hospital, asking to be connected to the Maternity Ward. And, of course, Dr. Whale picked up. _Wonderful!_

* * *

Meanwhile, Rumplestiltskin strutted into Storybrooke General Hospital as if he owned the place. Which, until recently, was pretty true. Everyone who saw him on the grounds either steered clear of him out of fear (which made Rumple smile) or disgust (which made Rumple sneer). Either way, nobody got in his way, or questioned why he was there, which suited him just fine! Calling the elevator with a wave of his hand, he casually walked inside, stopped in the middle, and spun around, eyeing everyone else outside the elevator (who had been waiting for a car) with interest.

None of them got in.

With a shrug, Rumple activated one of the numbers with a flick of his wrist and smirked at his audience as the doors rolled shut.

 _Gods_ , he loved being a Dark One! The _power_ it came with was _amazing_! Everybody feared him. Everybody kept out of his way. He could do anything he wanted, _whenever_ he wanted to do it!

Well… _almost_ anything.

The elevator dinged as the doors slid open to reveal the Maternity Ward. As soon as he was spotted on the floor, one of the nurses let out a tiny shriek, and there was a mad dash by every medical person around him to get out of his way and to protect the newborn babies from him. Rumple rolled his eyes. Typical. You try to take _one_ baby, and suddenly you're branded a baby-napper for life!

Of course… they weren't wrong. Rumple _was_ here for a baby. Just not _yet_.

The fact that his and Belle's child was conceived _while_ he was a Dark One (rather than before his transformation) presented a complication.

Darkness, as Rumple had just proven, was transferrable. Hook had transferred the darkness of all the previous Dark Ones (including the darkness inside Emma) _into_ himself. When Emma stabbed him with (a magically altered) Excalibur, they both transferred that (amalgamated) darkness into Rumple. _Because_ Darkness could be combined to the degree that it was, that also meant that the Darkness could be split up into chunks again. Nimue's darkness and Emma's darkness and Rumple's previous (individual) darkness and Hook's darkness, and all the darkness of all the other Dark Ones, _all_ got together and seated themselves inside Rumple. Thus, Rumple now contained the dark souls of _at least_ 15-20 Dark Ones. _However_ , if Rumple lost control of his Darkness, at any point in time, any one of those dark souls could sneak away from the group, find a way out of his body, and lodge itself in someone _else's_ soul, thus infecting it like it would a new Dark One. The new "infected" soul would be less powerful than Rumple (considering Rumple still had a majority of the darkness inside of him), but it would _still_ be a Dark One.

Now… Rumple wasn't _absolutely_ sure, _**BUT**_ … if he had to take stock of all the dark souls inside of him, he would bet _good_ money that _two_ of those dark souls were "missing"—the darkness that belonged to Emma Swan, and the darkness that belonged to Killian Jones. Those last two souls were the most powerful "pieces" in his collection of Darkness, because they were a combined package. They were a "twofer". Rumple couldn't separate one from the other if he could. But even if he could, he wouldn't want to. They were his "magnification" piece. Rumple used their darkness to magnify the powers he conjured using the other dark souls. Without their combined darkness, Rumple wasn't _nearly_ as powerful as he had been just after the transfer.

Like the irritating couple from whence they came, Emma and Killian's combined dark souls had _escaped_ Rumple's clutches while he was distracted with Belle. They broke off from the rest of the Dark One group, hitched a ride on one of Rumple's "little swimmers" and now, Rumple suspected, their combined darkness infected _his child_! The bane of his existence and his wife had just turned _his_ child into a Dark One.

"They're gonna pay for that." The Dark One grumbled, fingering the dagger inside his jacket pocket. Once he found a solution to this dilemma and he woke Belle, he was going to make Hook and Swan's life a living hell.

But first Rumple had to fix this. He had to find a way to take the Darkness out of his child, transfer it into another being (preferably a baby, since they don't have the ability to fight back), and then stab that baby with his Dagger, thereby reclaiming the errant souls that dared to escape his dark clutches in the first place!

Then he was going to wake Belle (somehow), and then he was going to make life difficult for Hook and his family.

First things first, though—he needed a baby. And not just _any_ baby. He needed a baby that was strong enough to take the transfer without dying. At least until Rumple ran it through. Rumple knew that _his_ child was strong enough to take the Darkness (specifically because it would've been built _by_ the Darkness to be able to withstand its possession), but regular human beings oftentimes were not able to withstand the possession. The Apprentice had died upon being possessed. Regina had been on the verge of dying when Emma channeled the Darkness away from her. Rumple needed a child who had the inner strength to absorb that Darkness and _contain_ it long enough for Rumple to stab the baby and take the Darkness back.

The question was… which of these poor, unfortunate souls would be strong enough to make the cut.

Rumple was headed to Whale's office right now to check out the candidates, not only from the pool of babies in the other room, but from the roster of expectant mothers as well. Belle was still a few months away from giving birth. (She was sadly under the impression that a sleeping curse would be able to stop her pregnancy, but Rumple knew that her assumption was wrong. While _she_ was asleep, her baby was very much awake. The sleeping curse would be able to keep the baby alive throughout the ordeal, but she would still continue to move through her pregnancy at the usual pace. The only difference now is that she's not awake to experience it. Which might be a good thing, considering everything Rumple's doing right now.) If he could find a strong baby candidate who would be born _around_ the time that Belle would give birth, that baby would be preferable for his plans.

As he approached Whale's office, Rumple found that although the rest of the floor seemed to know he was here through the chaos alone, Whale was oblivious to the melee. His door was cracked open, and the nurses' screams and squeaks could be heard from down here, but the OB just kept on talking cheerily. Apparently, he was on the phone with a patient, chatty as usual, his crass humor coloring the conversation. It was the _name_ of the patient, though, that caught Rumple's attention and made him decide to eavesdrop rather than barge in and knock the good doctor out (which had been his initial intention).

"Emma, I wouldn't worry too much about it." Rumple heard him say. "Going by what you and Killian described, I don't think the Darkness did anything to infect your baby in any way. And besides… I thought you said that Killian channeled it all out of you…" Ah, so he _was_ talking to Miss Swan! "…Exactly! So, personally, I don't think there's anything to worry about. But I'm not a magic expert. I'm a doctor. So…"

Rumple smiled. So the pirate and the Savior were having a baby. Perfect! It was _their_ combined darkness that now infected _his_ baby. He could use their little whelp to channel his child's darkness into, then when the pirate's spawn had the Darkness under control, Rumple was going to relish running it through with his Dagger. The look he envisioned on Hook's face when he discovered his newborn's lifeless body made Rumple giddy with joy. Oh, this was going to be _**SO**_ much fun! Now he just needed to figure out how he was going to get his hands on that child without anyone linking the kidnapping to him. The less he had to deal with those two imbeciles known as its parents, the better. They _always_ found a way to foil his plans, and considering this operation involved _his_ child's future, failure was not an option for Rumplestiltskin.

If only he had a ringer, like he did back in the Enchanted Forest, the first time. When he needed Snow and Charming's baby for his own selfish purposes, he enlisted the Evil Queen's help in acquiring said baby and steering it towards where he needed it to be. His plan had worked like a charm. Now he needed Hook and Emma's baby for a similar reason—to save _his_ child by sacrificing theirs. But, unfortunately, Regina couldn't be counted on any more like she used to.

Then it hit him—Regina might not be reliable for him anymore, but the _Evil Queen_ still was! And the last he heard, Regina had split herself apart from the Evil Queen (something Rumple saw as a _HUGE_ mistake on her part). Regina's "good" side was under the impression that she had killed her "bad" side, but Rumple knew better—Darkness was not so easily destroyed, most especially if the person still wanted it to be a part of them. Regina's "good" side was not as strong as the Evil Queen. It lacked the _conviction_ of the Evil Queen. Regina was now a shell of her former self, without the substance of the Evil Queen inside of her. Given enough time, and enough exposure, the Evil Queen will eventually kill Regina, of that Rumple had no doubt. And considering the Evil Queen looked _exactly_ like Regina (and the Evil Queen was capable of putting on a convincing act), the _both_ of them could eventually use that to their advantage.

Thus, just like that, Rumple had his solution—he was going to use the pirate's baby for the sacrifice, and he was going to use the Evil Queen to get his hands on it. All he needed to do now was _find_ the Evil Queen.

And Rumple knew _exactly_ where to start looking.


	3. Pilot Redux Ch 3: Operation Happy Ending

Two hours later, Emma, Killian and Henry snuck into Storybrooke General via a rear entrance, and made their way to the Maternity Ward by climbing five stories up a rarely-used back staircase.

"This is so cool, mom!" Henry exclaimed, even though he was slightly out-of-breath from the climb up the stairs, "I feel like we're on a covert ops mission!"

"Don't you know, Henry? We are!" Emma snarked, a bit breathless herself, "I call it 'Operation Everyone-else-can-deal-with-Jekyll-and-Hyde-right-now'!"

"Don't be ridiculous, Swan. That name is entirely too long." Killian smirked, bringing up the rear, "How about 'Operation Swanling'?"

"It's Cygnet, isn't it?" Henry broke in, throwing a curious look at the man behind him with the ridiculously large vocabulary, "A baby swan is a cygnet?"

"It is indeed." The captain nodded with a small smile.

"Operation Cygnet!" The teen exclaimed in turn. "Or, Operation…" He liked that the two of them were playing along with him right now, and he didn't want them to stop, "…Baby Jones! Or Operation…Jones Family! Jones Four! I feel like Indiana Jones right now!" Henry grinned, continuing to bounce up the stairs despite his weariness at climbing so many flights.

"I'm calling it 'Operation Mama-needs-a-break'!" Emma continued her pattern of long operation names.

"How about 'Operation Mummy- _deserves_ -a-break'." Killian muttered in agreement.

"Or how about 'Operation We- _all_ -deserve-a-break." Henry threw in.

"I completely agree." The captain nodded as Emma took the final step and reached for the doorknob to the Maternity floor.

"Oooo! _I_ know what we'll call it!" She exclaimed suddenly, her eyes lighting up just like Henry's did. "Operation Happy Ending." She grinned at her two boys, who returned her smile with just as much intensity. It was the perfect name.

"I think I like that name." Henry agreed, coming up on the landing beside her.

"Mmmm… I think I do too." Killian grinned, pulling in for a sweet kiss as he too came up beside her.

Henry groaned, shut his eyes and turned away, "Ugh! Do you guys have to do that in front of me?!" He complained. The couple broke off the kiss to smirk at their embarrassed son. They could see the tips of his ears turning bright red. "It's bad enough that I know what you did to _make_ that baby! I don't need to see hints of it whenever I look at you!" He cracked open one eye and relaxed when he saw that they pulled away from one another. "I'd like to pretend that baby just popped in there by magic."

Emma snorted and pulled open the door. "Ha! Yeah! I'm the freakin' Virgin Mary." She shook her head and walked into the ward.

"Sherriff Swan! Thank God you're here!" One of the nurses exclaimed, running up to Emma and making her groan, "Rumplestiltskin was just in here a while ago—"

"What was the Crocodile doing here?!" Killian growled, coming up from behind Emma to confront the nurse. All his senses were suddenly on alert. "Did he take anyone? Did he say anything? What'd he do?" The nurse merely shook her head and shrugged.

Emma rolled her eyes, "You mean the man with the pregnant wife who's under a Sleeping Curse right now?" Her gaze moved between the overly-panicky nurse and the overly-protective pirate. " _Maybe_ he was here to talk to Whale or something, to maybe try to find some way to wake her up, or he had a question about the baby. He _does_ have legitimate reasons to be here!" Emma _so_ didn't want to have to deal with this right now.

"How did he even get back here? I thought we lost him in that blasted steel forest?" Killian replied, not so dismissive of Rumple's earlier presence in the maternity ward.

"Well, Hyde managed to show up here," Henry pointed out, "He didn't do that on his own. _And_ he had Belle's box, the last time I checked."

"Rumple must've traded a trip to Storybrooke for the box." Emma figured, "You _did_ say that Hyde had possession of the Sorcerer's wand, which _could_ make a portal home. Rumple must've used it, and Hyde gave him back the box in exchange for coming with him."

" _And_ bringing the rest of the residents from the refuge here as well." Henry added, because Emma didn't seem to realize that Hyde wasn't the only refuge resident here in Storybrooke now.

"Ugh…" Emma rolled her eyes. That was typical! One problem begot five-hundred more, "…you know what? Nobody's dying, nobody's in any immediately danger—"

"That we know of." Killian grumbled, determined to find out what the Crocodile was up to the first chance he got.

"Nurse… Jackie, I'm sorry. Other than Rumple being a creep, there doesn't seem to be much cause for alarm." She turned to Killian, "We _know_ what the guy's up to—he's trying to get Belle out of that Sleeping Curse without a True Love's kiss. As far as we know, nothing _but_ a True Love's kiss is going to wake her. And if there's anything else that _can_ wake her, I can't imagine he'd need a baby for it." She turned back to the nurse, "And Belle _is_ having a baby, so he might've just been concerned about the effects of the curse on the child. Believe you me, I'm the _last_ person on Earth to try to defend Rumplestiltskin, except for maybe this guy right here," She pointed to the scowling Killian behind her right shoulder, "and I will be sure to remember this little incident if anything else suspicious pops up in the near future."

" _I'm_ definitely going to remember it." Killian growled.

"But for right now, I'm sorry, Nurse Jackie, but I'm actually here for an appointment." She confessed.

The nurse's eyes widened, "Oh!" She exclaimed, her gaze moving between her, Killian, Henry, and then back down to her stomach. "Oh! Oh! Excuse me!" She smiled sweetly, "I'm so sorry! I had thought you were here because you were responding to our calls."

Emma frowned. "Calls?"

"We placed some calls to the Sherriff station about Rumplestiltskin. We were told the Sherriff would be arriving shortly."

 _DING!_

"Nurse Humphreys?! The Sherriff is here!"

"Grandpa!" "Dave!" "Dad!"

Killian grabbed Emma's hand, and Emma grabbed Henry's, and together the three of them ran down the hall to where Whale's office was located, all of them hoping that David hadn't seen them as they fled the room. Rapping on the door with his hook, Killian only waited a fraction of a second before throwing it open and pulling all three of them inside. Henry made it a point to slam the door behind them.

"Ah, Emma, Killian and Henry! Right on time!" Whale greeted with a smile as he walked in through a side door, a file in hand. It was as if he was used to patients barging into his office and slamming his doors as if they owned the place. "So I opened a file for you and the baby." He continued, never missing a beat as he waved for them to take a seat. "There is some medical history I need for you to fill in, obviously." He handed her a clipboard with some papers attached, "And while you're doing that, I'll talk to these two boys right here to see if there's anything I should look out for or pay special attention to."

"Us?" Killian asked, confused.

"What do _we_ have to do with the baby?" Henry chimed in.

"Well, you two can help me figure out if there are any genetic predispositions I should be aware of." Whale informed them, "You, Henry, for instance… you were a normal baby. You had a case of colic when you were young, but that's not out of the ordinary. You didn't have any major allergies. You had no birth defects. We have a _whole_ file on you that we can use for reference."

"To see if my little brother or sister would have the same things." The teen was beginning to get it.

"Exactly." Whale nodded, "Captain Jones." He offered the captain his hand.

"Dr. Whale." Killian took it with a smile.

"I can't recall if we ever formally met."

"I can't either." The captain shrugged.

"Well, it's as good a time now as any."

"I agree."

"By the way," Whale's gaze moved from Killian to Emma, "I _do_ believe congratulations are in order. The two of you just went to hell and back for each other, to my understanding?"

"Well… the Underworld." Emma shrugged distractedly, her full attention on the clipboard and papers in her lap. There _was_ a difference between the two places after all. It wasn't a _big_ difference, but still…

"Regardless," the doctor grinned as he came around the back of his messy desk, "it's still a feat to behold! I mean… the two of you didn't even let _death_ do you part. How many other couples in Storybrooke can actually _say_ that?!" He laughed, "I mean, they all promise, 'Til death do us part' at their weddings, while you two just totally blew _that_ out the water!"

Killian smirked. That was exactly what he was just telling Emma a while ago.

"So what do I call you now, Emma?" The good doctor continued, "Miss Swan? Mrs. Jones? Or would you hyphenate? You kind of look like the kind of woman who would hyphenate." Killian's eyes bugged out of their sockets. Was he implying…? Had they just gotten…? _Were_ they married?

"Then I'm afraid you don't know me at all, Dr. Whale." Emma sighed, "Swan was the family name of the couple who adopted me as a baby, and then _returned_ me to the system three years later, when they managed to have their own child. Like I was a toy they got tired of playing with and returned to the store."

The smile disappeared off of Whale's face, "Oh… I'm sorry."

"I'm not." Emma handed him back the clipboard, "I never wanted the name in the first place." She told him, "So let's just go with that, shall we?" She pointed to her signature at the bottom of the page as she stood up from her chair. "Are you going to do the ultrasound in here?" She asked, pointing to the side door that led to the examination room, quickly changing the subject in order to divert the attention of the two other boys in the room. Whale nodded with a small smile. "Got it! Come on, you guys." She steered them into the next room as Whale looked down to study the papers she had handed him. Her signature stood out at the bottom of the page:

 _Emma S. Jones_

Dr. Whale smiled.

Fifteen minutes later, Emma was situated on the exam table in the middle of the room, and Hook and Henry were sat together opposite Whale, who was explaining what an ultrasound (and an ultrasound machine) was to both of the extremely attentive boys. Meanwhile, Emma, who had gone through this before (albeit alone and extremely depressed), merely sat back with her eyes closed, enjoying the moment. She held Killian's hand in hers (though he was very distracted right now by the science spewing out of Whale's mouth) and was running her thumb up and down one of his rings. _Enjoy the moment._ She kept reminding herself. _Enjoy the moment._ She didn't know if she was _ever_ going to go through this again, and she would be damned if she missed it again this time around because of all the crap that always seemed to happen around her. As Killian constantly reminded her, she needed a break. And now that Regina (and everyone else) was free of the Evil Queen, and relative peace was restored to this land, she could cash in on that well-earned break. Regina could be the Savior for now. Emma was going to enjoy this pregnancy if it was the last thing she did!

"So that's how that works!" Whale finished his mini-lecture with a smile, "Wanna see?!"

"Wow!" Killian breathed in awe.

"Yeah!" Henry exclaimed with a grin.

"Great! First things first, though. A couple of diagnostic questions for mama here." The doctor took out Emma's file and turned to one of the pages, "When was the last day of your last period?"

Henry made a face and Emma's eyes moved to the ceiling in thought, as if she was searching her brain for the answer. "I don't know." She confessed, "I've never really been one to keep track of those things—"

"Just give me your best guess."

Emma sighed, "It was… when Elsa and Anna were still here. Probably… just after my brother was born?" She shrugged. "I remember getting it _just_ after we came back from the Enchanted Forest. Just after that whole time travel thing. And then Elsa showed up after that, and…yeah. So, I guess… about a week or so after my brother was born, so—"

"And your brother's about five months now?"

"Five or six." Emma nodded.

"So your last period ended about six months ago."

"I'd say closer to five, maybe."

"Okay." Whale jotted that down.

"Pardon me," Killian broke in, "What does that have to do with anything?"

"I'm trying to pin down how far along she is in her pregnancy." The doctor explained, having done this countless times before with multitudes of confused husbands. "By figuring out the last day of her last period, I can figure out when her new ovulation cycle began. From there, I can figure out when her most fertile day was, and come up with a window during which you two most likely conceived." Both Killian and Henry nodded, fascinated with this whole science side of pregnancy and birth. "And then once I have that window, _then_ I can figure out how far along she is in her pregnancy, and then figure out her due date."

"He's going to tell us when our baby is going to be born." Emma grinned, enjoying the light that suddenly appeared in Killian's eyes. His grip on her hand tightened, as did hers on his. They had barely begun the appointment, and already the both of them were beginning to get emotional.

"Mm-hmm!" Whale nodded, very used to the overwhelming emotions that circulated the room during every couple's first ultrasound. A couple of equations and a trusty twenty-four month calendar, and the good doctor was able to give the parents-to-be a wealth of useful information. "Alrighty-then! Are the three of you ready?!"

Emma bit her lip in excitement and pulled Killian's hand close to her chest, nodding. Henry, for his part, was a little more subdued. He still wanted to pretend that his sibling's existence was an immaculate conception, and there was no sex involved in its creation. "Just give me the facts, Doctor. None of this mushy stuff." He replied, playfully waving away his mom's squeak of excitement.

Killian snorted despite himself, and Emma's mouth dropped open in mock affront, "Excuse you!"

Whale laughed, "Oh, come on, Henry! You _like_ this mushy stuff!"

"No, thank you, sir!"

"I guarantee you—mushy stuff will come out of you too once you lay your eyes on your little brother or sister for the first time." He turned to Emma and Killian, "If you want, later on, I can recommend a couple of books on dealing with adolescents right alongside those on dealing with pregnancies."

"Hey!" Now it was Henry's turn to act offended.

"Just for you, kid, here are the facts!" He showed the family Emma's chart, "Going by when you said your last period was, I figured the two of you most _likely_ conceived around the time we had that Shattered Sight curse thing? I vaguely remember the date of it." The soon-to-be parents nodded, "That would put you at _about_ 20 weeks now, which is about 4-5 months along. At the most."

"That's what I figured." Emma nodded.

"But what about that whole Dark One phase?" Killian asked.

"Well, that's what I was just about to address—we don't know _for sure_ if the fetus stopped growing at the time. That 20-weeks guesstimate is assuming that the Dark One curse _didn't_ stop the fetus from growing. So… your period stopped six months ago, baby is five months along. If your period stopped five months ago, baby is four months along. This is all an educated guess going by dates. We'll know the _exact_ age of your baby once I do the ultrasound, and I can measure its length." Whale explained, seeing the beginnings of understanding in Killian's eyes. "Now… _if_ your lack of aging during the Dark One curse _did_ extend to the baby, _then_ all we do is subtract about seven weeks from the dates. So instead of your baby being around 20 weeks along, your baby would only be about 13 weeks along. You'd be about 3-4 months right now. That's the lower end of this estimate."

"The common number between those two guesses is four months." Killian pointed out with a raised eyebrow.

"I would say four months is a pretty safe bet." Whale nodded, looking down to examine Emma's stomach and abdomen. There was the beginning of a bump there. It wasn't _that_ big, but it was starting to stick out more than a regular stomach would, even when bloated. Dropping his clipboard and pen onto the table, he rolled up his sleeves. "May I?" He pointed at the small bump he noticed and waited for Emma's nod before he started gently feeling around the area with his fingers.

As Emma straightened herself to give him easier access, she saw one of Killian's face muscles twitch while he watched Whale feel around her stomach, and she gripped his hand tighter, sending a small smile his way. "What is it?" She whispered up at him, knowing full well why he suddenly tensed up like he did.

Killian frowned at the doctor's probing fingers, but gave her a small shake of the head. "Nothing, love." He muttered under his breath, watching Whale like a hawk. Emma snorted and rolled her eyes. She wondered how Whale coped with all the jealous husbands like Killian who probably passed through here regularly.

"Yup! There's definitely a baby in there!" Whale nodded.

"You're _absolutely_ _sure_?" Emma asked, wanting to know the truth now before her hopes (and her family's hopes) got any higher.

"If it'll make you feel better, I'll do a blood test so that you can have a paper that says it for certain." Whale's dealt with these kinds of parents before, "But, considering you've missed your period for the last five months, _and_ the dark creature that invaded your body told you it was true, _and_ you took about twenty pregnancy tests, which _all_ read positive—which means your HCG levels are pretty darn high— _and_ you look like you have a tiny baby bump right about here," he gently laid his fingers atop a small section of her abdomen just underneath her bellybutton, " _I'd_ say there's definitely a baby in there. And I've been doing this a pretty long time, just so ya know." He chuckled. Turning to the machine next to him, he switched it on and picked up a small doohickey, eyeing Henry over his shoulder, "You're lucky, kid. Your mom's far enough along in this pregnancy that her first ultrasound doesn't need to be transvaginal."

"Transvagi—" Henry stopped himself mid-word and blushed deeply. He was about to ask what that meant when his mind broke it down and caught onto the second word.

"Uh-huh!" Whale chuckled, relishing in his embarrassment, "It means 'through the vagina', which is how we _usually_ do the first ultrasound, but that's in the _really_ early weeks, like around Week Eight."

"What'd he say?!" Killian exclaimed, his eyes bugging out as his gaze rotated between Whale, the strange instrument, and Emma.

"I was saying how that's _not_ happening right now because your wife's far enough along that I don't need to insert a probe into her vagina."

Killian's mouth dropped open. Then it closed. His face muscles twitched. Then his mouth dropped open again. Then it closed a second time. Now he was even _more_ confused than when the blasted physician had said what he did the _first_ time! Now Killian didn't know which _part_ of that statement he was meant to address—the part about another man probing _his_ lady's private spot (a private spot reserved _only_ for him) with some god-awful instrument, or the fact that said other man had called her his _wife_! He turned to Emma in bewilderment, not knowing how to respond, but she merely smiled up at him with that calming smile of hers, and gave his hand a supportive squeeze. "Calm down, babe. He's about to show us a picture of our baby."

"And I'll _only_ be touching her belly. Don't you worry." Whale snorted, pulling out the petroleum jelly and waiting for Emma's cue. The expectant mother pulled up her shirt, exposing her slightly protruding belly for the first time, and steeled herself for the cold gel she remembered from her first pregnancy. "Alright, here we go!" Whale squeezed the gel onto her belly, switched on the machine, and started scanning around. After a brief silence, he turned back towards them, "Before I show you the screen, do you want to know the sex of the baby, or do you want to keep it a secret?"

"Wait! So there's _really_ a baby in there?" Henry broke in, craning his neck to see the screen, which was currently turned away from them.

Whale gave all of them a gentle smile, "Yes, there is _really_ a baby in here." He confirmed.

Emma gasped and covered her mouth with her free hand. It was true. It was _**TRUE!**_ She could feel her eyes begin to water as she squeezed Killian's hand all the more harder. Turning to her "husband", she watched as he tried (and failed) keep the giant grin off his face. The _actual_ confirmation (complete with visual proof) of what they had both hoped for was beginning to make him emotional. And they hadn't even seen the actual ultrasound yet! "We're having a baby, Killian." She said out loud, and he tore his eyes away from Whale to meet her gaze. Emma could see tears hovering _just_ below the surface of his "tough guy" pirate exterior. One look at that baby and Killian was a goner, she knew. "We're having a baby."

"We're having a baby!" He echoed in awe, leaning in to give his "wife" a highly-charged kiss. Emma could feel his heart skip a beat. This was a moment they were both going to remember for the rest of their lives!

When they finally broke away from the kiss, they took a minute to lean their foreheads against each other's in an effort to collect themselves.

Whale gave them their moment, before softly repeating his question a second time, "Yup, you're having a baby! Congratulations, Mommy and Daddy! Now, before I show you your mini-me, do you want to know if it's a boy or a girl?"

This time, when Killian's mouth dropped open, he knew exactly why, "You can do that?" He turned back to Emma, "He can do that?"

"Mm-hmm!" Emma sniffed, wiping her eyes with her free hand. "Yeah… He can tell a lot of things from an ultrasound."

" _I_ , for one, wanna know!" Henry spoke up, tired of waiting for them to make a decision. "I don't wanna keep saying, 'little brother or sister'. It's too long." He craned his neck once again to try to see the screen.

"Well, that's up to your parents to decide." Whale replied, "Their answer makes a difference in the way I position this wand when I show you guys the baby."

"Can _you_ tell what it is?" The teen inquired.

"Uh-huh, I know _exactly_ what it is!" Whale grinned.

"I…" Killian stopped, not knowing how to respond once again. He turned to Emma, "I don't know. What would you like, luv?"

"I like knowing what to expect." She replied without hesitation. Turning to Whale, she asked, "Are you absolutely _sure_ you know what the sex of the baby is?"

"Absolutely!" He nodded, "Mm-hmm! You're far enough along for me to tell. In fact…" Using his other hand, the doctor clicked a few buttons, his eyes focused on the screen. "I can tell you… _exactly_ how far along you are, and I can give you your due date!" He smiled.

"What do you think, Killian?" Emma turned to the man next to her, tugging on his hand to get his attention. Killian was in an absolute daze right now. It was adorable.

"Do you want to know if we're having a son or daughter?"

Killian grinned and turned away, his head tilting back to stare at the ceiling. Emma could literally see the tears flowing into his eyes. He was trying to keep it together for her, but he was being overwhelmed by the emotion of the moment. Emma was enjoying his and Henry's reactions just as much as she was enjoying the ultrasound. "I don't care, luv." He replied after an attempt to clear his throat. A tear managed to slip down his face as he turned back to her, "I—I—I—I don't… Eh… I don't—I think…" He cleared his throat once again, and swiped at his eyes with his shoulder, "Whatever you want, Emma."

The expectant mother grinned, knowing _exactly_ what it was that he wanted, but enjoying the fact that he was practically speechless right now, "I think you want to know." She told him, "And I think I _want_ you to know."

" _I_ certainly want to know!" Henry chimed in, trying his hardest to make his voice heard and push them to make the decision _he_ wanted them to make.

"It's decided then!" His mother nodded and turned back to Whale, "We all want to know what it is."

"Okay then!" The doctor laughed. He always loved watching the emotions of the expectant parents. He especially loved the ones who melted into a pile of goo when the reality of the situation hit them, much like Captain Jones had just done. "Well, Mr. and Mrs. Jones…" He began, grabbing the monitor in his left hand, "…I want to introduce you to your new…" He angled the monitor so that they all had a good picture of the baby, including its sex, "…baby boy!"

All three of them gasped.

"Oh my god!" Emma choked, putting her free hand to her mouth in an effort to hold back her sobs.

"I'm having a brother!" Henry cried, overjoyed as well.

Killian, for his part, sat frozen in shock. The small black-and-white blob on the screen, which clearly looked like a baby, was his son. _His_ son. It was _their_ son! He and Emma were going to have a _baby_! Killian couldn't stop the tears that filled his eyes this time around. And he didn't want to. He was _**beautiful!**_ He had two perfect little hands complete with ten perfect little fingers, and two perfect little feet complete with ten perfect little toes, and a perfect little head, and a perfect little… Well, it was _clearly_ a boy! The captain swallowed and blinked to clear his vision, feeling the streams of joy start rolling down his face, "Oh my gods…" He breathed in awe.

"We're having a baby boy, Killian!" Emma quietly squeaked through her sobs, she herself had joyful tears running down her face.

Killian turned to her then, "He's beautiful!"

"He's perfect!"

"I love you!" The captain exclaimed, pulling in for a kiss.

"I love you too!" Emma returned it with just as much fervor and they finished it off with their usual forehead touch.

"You're gonna be a daddy, Killian." Henry congratulated him, patting his shoulder awkwardly.

The captain turned back to him and put an arm around his shoulder. "I'm already a daddy, lad." He assured him as he leaned over to plant a kiss atop his head. Henry blushed but smirked proudly, as if Killian had just passed a test he didn't even know he administered. "And _you're_ going to be a big brother!" Henry's eyes widened at that, as if it was something he just realized.

"I'm gonna be a big brother." He repeated in awe.

"It's an important position, Henry." Emma added with a smile, delighting in the look on his face, "You're going to have someone looking up to _you_ , wanting to be just like _you_ , and follow _your_ example."

"As someone who was a little brother himself, I can attest to that." Killian nodded, and he and Emma took a moment to remember Liam, as they stared at the beautiful little baby-shaped blob on the screen. "And that's why it's going to be important to set a good one." He threw in, figuring that 'the earlier, the better' was a good philosophy when it came to raising kids, and taking a gamble that Henry would learn to control himself and his impulses faster if he knew he had someone looking up to him as an example; someone that he himself wanted to protect.

"Well, you won't have to worry about that with me!" Henry assured him, never taking his eyes off the small human on the screen—his little brother. "I'm gonna set the _best_ example for him, you'll see!"

Killian exchanged a stealthy glance with Emma and the two parents smirked at each other. He wriggled his eyebrows at her, and she shook her head at him. The man _certainly_ had a way with children! Reaching up, she gave him another kiss.

"Congratulations, all of you!" Whale finally spoke up, not wanting to ruin the magical moment for any of them. All three eyes focused back on him, as if they _just_ remembered that he was in the room too.

"Thank you so much, Dr. Whale." Emma grinned.

"Is he alright?" Killian sniffed, cleared his throat, and swiped at his wet cheeks, trying to get himself back under control. "I mean… is he healthy? No…ill effects from when she was possessed by the Darkness? Or our little trip to the Underworld?"

Emma turned to him worriedly. "Not that I can tell, no." Whale assured her, shifting the ultrasound wand with his right hand, and grabbing his mouse with his left. "Everything so far looks normal." He pointed to a pulsing dark-light spot on the screen, "Here's his little heartbeat."

"Oh my god, his heartbeat!" Emma exchanged a watery smile with Killian. _That_ little beating thing managed to make her tear up all over again.

"It's so tiny!" Killian exclaimed with a smile. The thing was the size of a bean on the screen.

"Oh, it's even tinier than that!" Whale chuckled, "Your whole baby is about the size of a turnip." He explained. "If you cupped your hand, he would be able to fit inside it." The soon-to-be father gaped, and he stared down at the cupped hand that Henry held out, both boys trying to see how big that truly was.

"Wait…so you know how far along I am?" Emma asked.

"I do!" Whale nodded, making a few clicks on the screen, "You are precisely…seventeen weeks along!" He smiled, "So we were right to assume about four months. It appears the Dark One curse didn't _quite_ stop your baby's development. It merely slowed it down a little bit." He shrugged, "Either that, or you conceived three weeks later than when I said you did earlier, but… In either case, you have a happy, healthy, seventeen-week-old baby boy growing in there. He is precisely… about 4.9 ounces, maybe, so you should probably be eating a _little_ bit more than you have."

"She _will_ , Doctor, I promise you that." Killian nodded.

" _Excuse_ me! It's _my_ body." Emma rolled her eyes, "I'll be eating _exactly_ as much as I please!"

"Anytime of the day or night, if you're hungry, you tell me." Killian told her, "I'll find it for you, buy it for you, or make it for you! _Anything_ you want!"

"Isn't that what you've _been_ doing?!" Henry pointed out, recalling all the times the past few weeks (especially after Elsa left and before Rumple came back to town) when his mom had made a strange food request late at night sometimes, and Killian had run out to get it.

"I'll be doing it even more now." The captain informed him, "You, too, lad—you let me know what you want to eat, and as long as you tell me in front of your mother, I'll get it for you."

"Hey!" Emma frowned, "That's just your sneaky way of getting me to eat more!"

"Tell me it won't work." Killian challenged her.

"I didn't say _that_."

"It's a deal!" Henry grinned, wanting to take as much advantage of _this_ situation as possible.

"Good lad!"

"A little more food is not going to kill you, Emma." Whale laughed. Moving the ultrasound wand again, he typed something into the computer before turning back to them, "Alright… are you two ready to find out the due date of your baby boy?"

"You can predict when he's going to be born?!" Killian's mouth dropped open in awe as he turned to Emma, "That magic machine is a fortune teller too?!"

"It's all about _dates_ , Captain." Whale snorted. "I can give you a rough _guess_ as to when the baby is going to be born, according to science, but he may come earlier, or he may come later. _Or_ he may come on time!" He shrugged, "It depends on your son. He'll come out when he's good and ready to. Babies are like that."

"He should be due sometime in October, right?" Emma asked. Counting up in her head, October made sense, considering they most likely conceived in February.

"October 22nd, to be precise." The doctor smiled.

Emma's eyes widened to the widths of saucers. "October _what_?!" She exclaimed, shocked.

"Emma?" Killian frowned.

"22nd" Whale repeated, frowning himself at Emma's unexpected reaction. "Why?"

"October _22_ _nd_?!"

"What's wrong, mom?"

"Nothing's wrong," Emma assured Henry, "It's just…that's my _birthday_!" She told them. Her statement of fact shocked both her son and her doctor. "That's my _30_ _th_ birthday."

"That's my birthday too." Killian murmured, and suddenly two looks of surprise were directed at him.

"It is?!" He nodded solemnly, and now Emma was even _more_ stunned. "Are you sure?"

"Henry and I made the conversion one day, out of curiosity." Killian explained, nodding to the boy next to him. "He wanted to know. As did I. October 22nd is what we were able to figure out."

"We have the same birthday?!" The soon-to-be mother whispered at the revelation.

"And now your son will too." Whale added. _This_ was certainly something he'd never seen before in his practice.

"This isn't a coincidence, Killian!" Emma suddenly turned suspicious at the timing of all of this.

"No, it's not." The captain agreed, his mind beginning to turn as well.

"You, me and our son _all_ having the same birthday?!"

"Oh, _great_ , mom! Now I'm feeling left out!" Henry snorted.

"Henry, this isn't funny." Emma began stressing out, "I'm being serious. Me and the baby having the same birthday, I _might_ be willing to say is a funny coincidence, but all _three_ of us?!"

"Especially in this town." Killian threw in.

"Fate had a hand in that." Whale smiled, wanting the happiness to return to the room. He wasn't used to a somber atmosphere during an ultrasound. All three of them turned to him, and he felt it wise to dispense with what he considered to be good advice. "And, personally, I think you should count your blessings. Not question them." He looked at Emma in particular, "Fate and the gods gave you a _beautiful_ baby boy!" He reminded her, "And whatever you, and that baby boy, and Killian and Henry are all meant to do…" he shrugged, "…just _go_ with it! Because once that's done, you still have them, and they still have you." He turned to the two boys as well, "You all will still have each other to come home to. So, if I were you…I'd stop being suspicious. If something's meant to happen, let it happen." He pointed to her stomach, "Because _that_ baby boy is a _blessing_ , worth _every_ bit of crap that gets thrown at you by destiny. Right, Henry?" Whale peeked up at the teen with a smirk.

The boy frowned, confused. "What's _that_ supposed to mean?!"

Emma and Killian, however, completely understood the doctor's teasing and smiled. "Quite right, Doctor." The captain replied, nudging his lad playfully.

Emma held up her free hand for Whale to grasp, turning grateful eyes at him for his efforts, "Thank you." She whispered with a gentle smile.

Whale nodded. "You're welcome."

A whirring noise drew everyone's attention to the small printer beside the ultrasound machine, and Whale let go of Emma's hand to grasp the printout made of the baby, "So…who wants baby's first pictures?" He handed them to Emma, who gazed at them lovingly. "I also saved a bunch of them into yours and the baby's files on the computer, and I'll be emailing them to you, Emma, so you can have them on your phones as well." He turned to the baby, still on the screen, "Wave bye-bye to mommy and daddy, Baby Jones!" He told the image playfully, "Bye-bye!" As if the baby understood him, his little hand flexed open and closed in a little wavy gesture.

Everyone laughed, while Emma held her free hand up to touch her baby's little hand on the screen. "Bye-bye for now, my sweet angel." She murmured tenderly.

"Well it won't _exactly_ be bye-bye." Whale broke in, drawing her attention away from the screen so he could switch it off without her notice. "I mean…he'll still be right there inside you. This is just the 'live feed' of him that we're saying goodbye to. He's still inside of there, if you want to talk to him, which I highly encourage all parents to do." He handed Emma some napkins to wipe her stomach with, and she took them absentmindedly, staring down at the ultrasound pictures with a wistful smile as she stroked her tiny bump lovingly.

"Hi there, baby boy! It's nice to finally see you!" She murmured downward, past the ultrasound in her hands and towards her stomach, "Your mommy, daddy, and big brother are all here waiting to meet you when you decide to come out."

Henry and Killian both smiled, and Killian tightened his arm around his lad's shoulder.

* * *

"Thank you so much, Sheriff Nolan."

"Absolutely. It's my pleasure." Snow watched as David reassured the nurses for what seemed like the umpteenth time that he would do everything in his power to keep the entire hospital (most especially the maternity ward) safe from Rumple and whatever his nefarious plans were. Her baby son shifted on her shoulder and whined. Snow adjusted him to a more comfortable position, and began patting his back soothingly. Her husband sighed wearily as he approached her.

"I hope that was enough to get them to calm down." Snow murmured, "They seemed pretty shaken up."

"Well, we were the same way when Zelena showed up here, remember?" David sighed. His wife nodded. "So we can't really blame them, or any of the parents here, for being nervous about Rumplestiltskin sniffing around the maternity wing, no matter how much he does have a legitimate reason for being here."

"Yeah, I guess so." Snow nodded, shifting Neal one more time as they made their way down the hall. When the nurses had called David to come check out the hospital after Rumple had left, Snow figured that she and Neal might as well tag along so that she could bring the baby in for his five-month check-up, which they hadn't gotten around to doing for a while now, not with all the things that have been happening back-to-back-to-back lately. "God, I just want there to be some peace-and-quiet in this town, for once!" She griped as they made their way towards Whale's office. "We had that small spell when Rumplestiltskin was banished, but ever since he returned, it was Ursula and Cruella and Maleficent, and then Emma and Camelot and the Dark Ones, and then Hook, and then the Underworld. Now that the Evil Queen is gone, you'd think we'd get _some_ kind of break!"

David nodded in assent as he reached Dr. Whale's examination room. "I completely agree." He sighed, rapping on the door for a beat, before reaching for the doorknob.

He never got the chance to try it, however, for the door was suddenly pulled open from the inside and a laughing Henry and Killian made their way out of the room.

"I'll remember that, Doctor, thank you!" Killian was telling someone (presumably Dr. Whale) behind him, and his head was turned away. Henry was the first to notice the three of them, as he was the first to actually turn around and take in his surroundings. The moment he spotted them, he froze, his tennis shoes squeaking loudly against the tile floor.

"Grandpa!" He exclaimed after a beat. "Grandma!"

Killian's laugh stopped as soon as he heard Henry's squeak, and his own head shot around to find his "in-laws" directly behind him. Like Henry, he froze in the doorway, the smile melted off his face, and his mouth dropped open in shock. He looked like the kid who got caught with his hand in the cookie jar.

"Henry!" Snow smiled, just as surprised as David to find the two boys here. In the maternity ward. Inside an exam room. "Killian!" She turned a charming smile onto the pirate, seeing if she can make him "talk" before Henry does. "Fancy seeing _you two_ here!"

"What _are_ you two doing here?!" David began grilling them immediately.

"Uuuuuuhhhhhhhhhhhmmmmmmm…." Both boys intoned together.

Before either of them could come up with a decent excuse, Whale appeared behind them, talking to someone else in the room. "So I'll see you here in a few weeks, Mrs. Jon—" He too froze when he spotted Snow, Charming and their baby at his door, "Ahhhhh! Isn't it the Charmings?! It's about time you two came to visit me!" He grinned. "Or, rather, it's about time your _little one_ came to visit me."

"Mom?! Dad?!" Emma popped up behind him, her face paling quickly, and both her parents turned to her with wide, shocked eyes and open mouths.

"Emma?!"

"What're _**YOU**_ doing here?!" David exclaimed, anger starting to seep into his voice. He immediately turned suspicious eyes onto the pirate, "What is _she_ doing here?!

"Nothing, mate!" Killian replied, suddenly getting defensive. Though he visibly swallowed, and refused to meet David's gaze.

"It doesn't _look_ like nothing to me." Snow murmured, more curious and delighted than angry.

"Well, it _is_ nothing." Emma snapped, pulling her jacket close around her as she stuffed an envelope into one of its pockets. Snow didn't miss that little move of hers. "We were just here because…" she glanced up at Whale, and then at Killian, "…we got a call about Rumple being here a while ago."

"No, _I_ got a call about Rumple being here a while ago." David argued, "We _were_ going to tell you about it, but figured you and Hook were probably out on the Jolly Roger or something."

"Well, we _were_ a while ago." Henry began, but his mother stopped him.

"And now we're here. Let's go guys!" She started steering both Henry and Killian out of the doorway and around her parents. "And now we're leaving, seeing as how the two of you have clearly got it handled."

"But mom, aren't we—"

"Let's _go_ , Henry!" She shushed him. A quick glance back told her her parents were still staring after them with suspicion.

"Come on, lad!" Killian wrapped his good arm around the boy and began propelling him down the hall (and out the back staircase) faster so that he couldn't blurt out any more than he already did.

"You three have a nice appointment!" Emma waved at them dismissively, her own legs propelling her to the point of running towards the back staircase. "Thanks for all your help, Dr. Whale!"

"See you in a month, Mrs. Jones!" The doctor replied in his loudest voice.

Emma cringed. Damn that man and his inability to take a hint! Now both her parents were back to their faces of absolute shock, and the _rest_ of the freakin' maternity ward was staring after her in surprise as well, having heard Dr. Whale announce that not _only_ did she have another regular appointment with him (an _obstetrician_ ), but that she _also_ now went by her married name— _before_ she even got the chance to announce to the town (and her parents) that she even _got_ "married" in the first place!

Behind her, Henry snorted and started laughing out loud. His laughter bounced off the walls as he entered the back stairwell behind Killian. Emma turned away and ducked into the stairwell as well, Killian letting the door shut behind them as he enveloped her in his arms. God, how she wished the earth would just open up and swallow her whole! This was _not_ how she wanted to make the announcement (either announcement) to her parents (or the rest of the town).

"Awww, mom! It's gonna be okay!" Henry pat her on the back, though he still had tears of laughter leaking from his eyes. "Grandma and Grandpa will get over it."

"Come on, luv." Killian crooned, "Let's get out of here."

And like before, at his announcement that he wanted to take them away, a cloud of white smoke enveloped the three of them and did just that.


	4. Pilot Redux Ch 4: Déjà Vu

"Whoa!" Henry exclaimed, stepping back in shock as he found himself aboard the Jolly Roger half-a-second later. "Whoa!" He spun around to take in his surroundings. "What just happened?!"

"Did we just teleport _again_?!" Killian exclaimed suspiciously, letting go of Emma to look down at her face. "Was it you that did it this time, luv?"

"No." Emma replied dully, stepping out of Killian's arms to head towards the grate that would take her to the Captain's cabin.

"No?!" Killian echoed in confusion. "What do you mean 'no'?! Then how did we bloody get here?!" He croaked at her retreating form. The captain was willing to let the mysterious teleportation go the first time around. But he wasn't about to drop the subject a second time.

"Is that what it's like to do that teleportation thing?" Henry asked excitedly, "The one with the smoke? The one that I see everybody else do? Is that what's it's like to _do_ that?!"

"If it wasn't you who did that, Swan, then _who_ keeps bloody transporting us everywhere?!"

"Why don't you take a look in the mirror, Killian, and ask yourself that again?" Emma snapped in return. She was too tired to deal with Killian's denseness right now. All she wanted to do was lie down and sleep.

"What's that supposed to mean?" The captain muttered at the boy next to him, who shrugged.

Emma opened the grate with a wave of her hand and turned back to the confused pirate, "Or how about this? Why don't you close your eyes and picture being at Granny's with as much intensity as you just pictured being aboard the Jolly Roger." Killian frowned at her, even more confused. "And while you're there, pick us all up a family-sized order of onion rings." She began heading down the steps, "And don't forget the ketchup and ranch dressing!"

"While I'm there?" Killian turned back to Henry, "What does she mean 'while I'm there'?"

Henry shrugged. "Close your eyes and picture Granny's." He grinned, wanting to see what his mother was getting at. "And I'd love an order of sweet potato fries as well, if you get there." The lad graced him with a charming smile of his own.

Scowling, but seeing no other way to get the answers that he wanted, Killian sighed and rolled his eyes, but then closed them nonetheless. He pictured Granny's, feeling compelled to pick up the onions rings and sweet potato fries his two swans had ordered. After all, he _did_ just promise the two of them that he would do food runs for them as often as they wanted it, and this was probably a test by the both of them to see if he was _truly_ going to be that obliging.

"Well, looks like you retained some of that magic of yours from when you were a Dark One, Killian."

The captain's eyes flew open and he found himself in the middle of _Granny's_ , standing at the counter, talking to Granny herself!

"What the bloody hell just happened?!" He exclaimed in shock.

Granny raised an eyebrow at him. "Well, you just poofed into here in a cloud of white smoke." She explained.

" _ **Me**_?!"

"You."

Granny gave him a 'duh!' look before walking out from behind the counter to drop an order of burgers and fries to one of the tables.

"What the bloody hell…?!" Killian balked at the impossibility of that statement, and shaking his head, he followed Granny to her table so that he could continue to question her, "Are you _sure_ it was me?!" He repeated.

Granny stood up after dropping her order off to narrow her eyes at him, as if he was a little boy who was being difficult just to annoy her. "Do you see _anyone else_ around you, Captain Jones? Has _anyone else_ in this diner transported via puffs of smoke before? Other than you?" Killian looked around despite himself. "It was _you_!" She snapped, shoving him in a chest with a rickety finger that belied its strength, and pushed past him on her way back to the counter.

"But—But—But—" Killian stuttered, continuing to follow her, "But I'm no longer the Dark One! How is that possible?!"

"So?!" Granny griped, collecting some dirty dishes and some tips from a spot at the counter, "You sucked all the Darkness out of Emma, from what I heard, and _she_ still has her magic." She pointed out.

"But Emma already _had_ magic before she became the Dark One." Killian explained, "It's just the _Darkness_ that I took out of her!"

"Speaking of which!" Granny stopped her bussing to give him a serious look and actually give him her undivided attention for the first time since he appeared in there, "Wasn't the _Sorcerer_ supposed to be the only person who could do that? Take the Darkness out of Emma?"

Killian frowned. That was…true. "Yeah…" He replied, cautiously.

"But _you_ were the one who did that." Granny continued, raising an eyebrow at him.

"…Yeah…"

"So…doesn't that make _you_ the Sorcerer?" She pointed out casually.

Killian blinked.

And blinked again.

And then blinked a third time and shook his head. "N…I…Uh…"

"Are you gonna order anything, or are you just gonna stand there, stuttering?" Granny continued, pulling away with her tub full of dirty dishes and shocking Killian out of his stupor with her sudden movements.

"I—Um…" Killian shook his head and frowned. Granny had a point. A very _good_ point. And it was making him uncomfortable.

"Come on, boy, I don't have all day." She waved for him to continue, pencil and order pad in hand. "The dinner rush is going to come in soon, so if you want your order quick, you're going to have to make it now."

"Uh…" The captain scratched the back of his ear vigorously. He didn't like being caught speechless like this, especially by Granny. "Um… Just…One family-sized onion rings, with lots of ketchup and ranch dressing, and a family-sized order of sweet potato fries to go along with it."

"Mmmm!" Granny grunted, jotting it down. "No grilled cheese sandwich this time?"

"No, we had a large lunch a while ago." Killian waved her away, taking a seat at the counter.

"Give me 5-10 minutes, and then you can poof out of here the same way you came in." She snorted, passing his order over to the cook and then holding out her hand for some payment. Killian handed her a gold coin, which she took into the back room (she did funny things with his gold coins, and stored them in a separate place than she did the regular money, but she usually gave him a lot of paper money back in change after the transaction), and as he waited for her to return, he ran a hand through his hair in frustration.

There were _so_ many things he didn't understand! First, Hyde had popped up out of nowhere and the Crocodile was sniffing around the maternity ward (where Emma was about to spend a lot of time), and that made him nervous. Second, the baby doctor had addressed Emma as "Mrs. Jones", which…was something that Killian didn't mind so much as he wanted _clarification_ for. He was already committed to Emma 100%, and just didn't want to scare her away with either a proper proposal _or_ a formal marriage ceremony (he knew Emma was quite skittish about such things and would probably run for the hills at the prospect of having to plan a wedding), but if she _already_ considered herself married to him, given everything that they had just been through, then Killian wasn't going to bother with either. If _she_ wanted to simply start calling herself his wife, then he was mighty fine with simply starting to call himself her husband. After they just _literally_ went to hell and back for each other, and refused to even let _death_ do them part, the whole idea of a "proper" wedding ceremony at this point was laughable. It was simply a bunch of words that meant _nothing_ against what they just proved to each other by action. As it was, Emma was now pregnant with their _child_ —living, breathing, physical proof of, and a _product_ of their True Love. That baby was a living _testament_ to their union. He and Emma couldn't get any _more_ "married" than they already _were_!

The third and final thing that Killian didn't understand was his powers, which just seemed to come out of nowhere! In the Underworld, he had chalked them up to flukes. When he stretched out a hand to try to save Liam from the fiery depths, and his brother suddenly popped up on a boat, Killian had chalked that up to…the gods, or someone who _wasn't_ him! He remembered giving his hand a funny look, though. And _Hades_ was sure as hell convinced that it was _his_ fault that Liam got to cross over, but…Killian didn't think so. At least, he didn't think so _at the time_! Now, however…he wasn't so sure of _anything_ anymore. Then came the fact that his hook _continued_ to have magic in it, despite the fact that Killian knew it was only supposed to work _once_ (on _one_ heart), and he used up that "one shot" when he removed Zelena's bracelet. Killian remembered using his hook to remove Cora's bracelet, and then Emma's bracelet (after James had put it on her). He had even tried to use it on Hyde's magic cage (although, like Zelena's magic, it was useless at the time as well). So either that little magic potion he applied to his hook left it _permanently_ magical, _**OR**_ …it wasn't the magic potion that powered his hook at all anymore. It was _his own_ magic that powered it.

But that was _impossible!_ How did _**HE**_ , of all people, have magic?! When he didn't even have magic inside himself to begin with _before_ he became the Dark One! Killian didn't _understand!_

"Argh!" The captain swung his fist and hook at the counter in frustration, shaking everyone's plates and cracking the glass surface of the table by accident.

"Hey! Calm down, will ya? You broke it, you bought it!" Granny scowled at him as she made her way back with a handful of cash in her fist.

Killian peered down at the damage he caused, as if noticing it for the first time, and cringed. "Sorry, luv, I was just—"

"Yeah, yeah! I don't care what you were doing." She pointed to the cracks on her countertop, "Fix it!" She ordered sternly.

The captain gave her a blank look. "I—W—Wh—What?!"

"Fix…it!" Granny repeated, taking to him as she would a child. "Fix my counter, Mr. Sorcerer-man!"

"Wh—Ah—" Killian shifted uncomfortably on his stool, "Stop calling me that!"

"You either fix it, or I'm giving you _way_ less change than I normally would." She waved the giant wad of bills in his face. "Perhaps I should start making you actually go to the _bank_ to exchange your gold."

"Well, how do you expect me to fix this?!"

Granny narrowed her eyes at him. "You just poofed in here from wherever you came from. You're telling me you can't fix a countertop?!"

"I don't know how I did that!"

"You were the Dark One once! You did magic easily enough then!"

"Yeah, but that was _different_!"

Granny rolled her eyes, "I don't see how." She gave him a no-nonsense look. "You looked like you were a natural with Dark Magic, so I think you'd be a natural with whatever kind of magic is inside you right now."

"I don't—" Killian turned away, shaking his head, "I don't agree."

Granny growled and rolled her eyes for the umpteenth time. "You know what? Just wave your hand."

"What? Why?!"

"Just _**wave it!**_ " She ordered him shortly.

Killian frowned in confusion, but flung his hand out nonetheless, just like he remembered doing when he threw Merida across the room.

Granny glanced down and then peered right back up at him, seemingly satisfied. "Thank you!" She slammed the giant wad of change down on the counter in front of him and walked away.

The captain watched her leave, still bewildered at their exchange. Glancing down to pick up his change, the countertop underneath him managed to catch his eye—it was fully repaired! Killian reacted, immediately moving his hands away and bringing his nose to the countertop as if conducting an inspection of the barracks back at the Naval Academy. He brought his eye close to the surface and looked for any and all signs of the _giant_ crack he had made on the counter not ten seconds before. He found nothing.

Not a single crack in sight.

Not even a _scratch!_

"Bloody hell…" Killian murmured.

"Here ya go, Sorcerer-man!" Granny exclaimed, slamming the giant bag of take-out down on the counter right next to his head. The captain straightened up in surprise. "Give my regards to the missus and Junior." After throwing his receipt into the bag, she walked away, completely ignoring him once again.

Killian couldn't believe it. This was… How did he…?

The captain shook his head. He _so_ didn't want to deal with this right now! Grabbing the bag, Killian hopped off his stool and was about to walk out the door when a thought occurred to him: What if he just…poofed there?

Granny insisted he was a natural at magic, and he apparently just proved her point by fixing the countertop without realizing it. And Killian reminded himself that he just poofed three different places today without realizing it either, so… Maybe getting back to the Jolly Roger wasn't going to be as hard as he thought.

The smell of fresh onion rings and sweet potato fries hit him as the bag popped open in his hands, and the familiar scents instantly reminded him of Emma and Henry, who were waiting for him to bring them these greasy treats aboard the Jolly right now.

 _POOF!_

And _there_ he was—right back aboard the Jolly Roger, on the exact same spot where he was standing when he "left" some 10-15 minutes ago.

"Bloody hell…" It really _was_ just as easy as he remembered it being. Killian shook his head. He so did _not_ want to deal with this right now. "Swan!" He called, wanting to alert the both of them that it was only him that popped aboard, and not some blasted Crocodile with an agenda.

"Down here, Killian!" Henry replied from the Captain's cabin.

With a wave of his hand, the grate flew open, allowing Killian to easily climb down the stairs, bag of food in hand.

"I smell sweet potatoes!" Henry grinned. Killian handed him the bag, and half his head disappeared into it a second later. "Yes!" He exclaimed, reaching into its depths to extract his prize.

Meanwhile, Killian peered up at the still-open grate that he just entered through and decided to try it just _one_ last time. Reaching out his hand, he slowly closed his fingers and gently made it into a fist. As expected, the grate creaked closed with a quiet click, and the lock engaged itself smoothly and softly. _Bloody hell…_ With a shake of his head, Killian turned away with a sigh.

"What's wrong, babe?" Emma inquired, popping an onion ring into her mouth. "You don't look happy."

"I'm not." Killian murmured over his shoulder as he made his way to the other side of the room.

"Well _I_ am!" Emma argued. After a glance back at Henry, Emma followed Killian across, grabbed his hand, pulled him into a corner, and waved her hand. Killian's new sense of…magic…told him that she just cast a privacy spell so that the boy couldn't hear them. "Look, Killian, I…" She cast one more glance at Henry to make sure he couldn't hear a word she said, "…I know you don't really like magic, and you've had all sorts of bad experiences with it, but with what's happened now, _whatever_ it is, you have _no idea_ how big of a help that is to me!" Killian peered at her dubiously, "Especially when it comes to fighting villains."

"Swan, you have Regina—"

"But, see, that's _exactly_ my point!" She whispered, peering back at Henry once more and glad to find him munching happily on his sweet potato fries, oblivious to their conversation. "I only had Regina to help me, and you know how unreliable _she_ is! She's a diva! I have to kiss her ass just to get her to help me, but now I don't have to! Now I have _you_ to help me! And I _know_ I can depend on you!"

"But _now_ you don't have the Evil Queen to contend against." Killian argued, throwing Emma's previous argument right back in her face. "You just have…regular, 'good' Regina."

"That's true, but _now_ I don't even have to ask for her help. _Now_ , I have my husband right there beside me!" She crooned, wrapping her arms around his waist and pulling him against her.

A smile tugged at Killian's lips, despite his earlier resolution to sulk like a child at suddenly having a gift he didn't want. Wrapping his hook arm around her waist, he waved his hand and undid Emma's earlier privacy spell so that Henry could easily hear _this_ part of their conversation. "Husband, huh?" His smile grew just a _little_ bit bigger at her mirroring smirk.

"Husband." She nodded.

"And just _when_ , exactly, was our wedding ceremony?"

"Ohhhhhh…over the course of the last ten weeks or so." She replied, catching Henry's attention. "My dad was your best man, my mom was my maid-of-honor, I walked _myself_ down the staircase at King Arthur's court…"

"You looked _gorgeous_ in that white dress of yours, with your crown of flowers…" Killian crooned, swaying her from side-to-side.

"And you looked like my handsome pirate prince in that charming get-up you had on." Emma grinned.

"Oh I did, did I?" Killian growled softly.

"Mmm-hmm!"

From the corner of their eye, they saw Henry make a face before reaching for his storybook and pulling out his pen. "Do continue…" Killian encouraged his "bride".

"Well…my bridal bouquet was that pink middlemist flower you gave me from our horseback ride into Camelot."

"The best kind!"

Henry popped open the book to the back pages, and his eyes bugged out of his head when he found a couple of the new pages in the _midst_ of being written!

"And the man who officiated our wedding was… Um…" That was one part Emma hadn't been able to figure out.

Henry stuck another sweet potato fry in his mouth as he watched the page write itself, the wheels in his head turning as to where this could possibly be coming from.

"Zeus." Killian filled in for her, "And Merlin." He shrugged.

 _He figured the two of them had a hand in what happened to the both of them these last few weeks._

"I figure they both had a hand in what happened to us these last few weeks."

 _It was fate._

"It was fate."

 _Like the expected birthday of their impending child, the transformation they both undertook into Dark Ones, followed by their subsequent journey into the Underworld, was all meant to happen._

"It's like our baby's birthday—us turning into Dark Ones, my death, the Underworld, my resurrection, maybe it…it was all meant to happen."

Henry fell hard against the back of his chair in shock, sweet potato fry frozen in his right hand, and storybook page frozen in his left. He couldn't believe this! _Everything_ that was coming out of Killian's mouth presented itself as commentary on the page! It was as if… _he_ was writing the book! He just had no idea it was happening _while_ it was happening!

"So you're saying that the most powerful Sorcerer of all the realms and the king of the gods were the ones who officiated our wedding?"

"Perhaps they're the ones who blessed our wedding."

 _It was true. The Jones' union was indeed blessed by Zeus, and it was his prophet, Merlin, who carried out his work on Earth. Killian had that correct. Where they were both mistaken, however, was in the NAME of the "most powerful Sorcerer of all the realms" for it was no longer Merlin who held the title. Upon his death, that title passed on to Killian Jones, who, along with Zeus and Emma, wrote the pages of his own story, which Henry bore WITNESS to and RECORDED in his storybook, as was his holy duty._

Henry snorted and popped the fry into his mouth. Chuckling at the page, he looked up at the sky and winked before turning his gaze back down to what he was reading. Listening to his mom and Killian figure this out _while_ he read the gods' commentary in real time was _incredibly_ amusing!

"Well…it kind of _does_ work." Emma figured. "The official usually says 'By the power vested in me by God and…' Well, in _this_ case, it'd be the King of the gods, I guess." The couple laughed at each other. "So the gods put us together, huh?"

"May no one put us asunder." Killian cupped the side of her head and ran his thumb across her soft cheek. They each pulled in for a quick kiss.

On another page, a drawing of his mom and Killian by a well, holding a ring, began to form.

"So for the rest of the ceremony…" Emma continued, "Over the last few weeks, we swore to have and to hold each other," The bride glanced down at their current positions (holding each other in their arms) and they both laughed, "For better or for worse…"

"We've been through better, and we've been through worse, just in the last ten weeks…" He looked deep into her eyes, "…and I've always loved you through both—"

"And I always _will_ love you through both." Emma finished for him, returning his hypnotizing gaze. "And also for richer or for poorer."

"Believe it or not, I was actually happy in your mother's loft—sharing a small apartment with five other people."

"And I was equally happy in that small closet Granny called a hotel room."

"Or in this small cabin!" Henry broke in, popping a sweet potato fry in his mouth, "Not that this ship is small or anything." He shrugged, blushing slightly when they both grinned at him. He didn't mean to interrupt them in the middle of their thing, but he did want to point out that this ship wasn't exactly the Ritz Carlton.

"And now in our slightly larger house by the sea…" Emma turned her smile back to her groom, "…I will continue to love you, in sickness and in health."

"If we can count that blasted Dark One curse as a sickness…" He laid his forehead upon hers, "…I loved you through it."

"And I loved you right back through yours." Emma closed her eyes and breathed in his strength, "'Til death do us part."

"And clearly _that_ didn't happen!" Henry spoke up, a smirk upon his face. In his hand, he held a fully completed picture of Killian giving Emma his ring at a well.

Both Emma and Killian grinned, and she moved her forehead down to his shoulder, taking a quick, calming breath before straightening up, looking him square in the eye, and continuing on, "Anyway, the point was, Killian…I said I do. I _do_ believe in you. I _do_ trust you. Every time I said 'I love you', it was my 'I do'."

The captain smiled and laid his hand at the back of her neck. "It was mine as well." Hooking his finger onto the chain of the ring her gave her, he pulled it out from underneath her shirt and held it up for her to see. "This ring is a symbol of my commitment to you." He told her, "It always has been, and it always will be." With all the care in the world, Killian removed the chain from around Emma's neck, and with a _slight_ bit of magic, he pulled the ring free from where it had been kept for centuries. Stepping back so that he and Emma stood slightly apart from one another, he grasped her wrist gently and brought her left hand up between them. Emma's breath caught in her throat and he sensed the slight hesitation, but it only lasted a fraction of a second, because before he knew it, she was pushing her fingers open, ready to wear his ring.

Killian brought the ring up to her left ring finger, but stopped just at the tip, sparing a side glance at Henry to gauge his approval. The boy lifted his head from the storybook page he had been scribbling on with his magic pen to smile at them both. "With this ring…" he began.

The captain grinned, silently thanking the gods and Henry that this marriage was blessed from all possible angles, "With this ring…" he repeated solemnly, looking into Emma's eyes.

"As a token of my love and affection…"

"As a token of my love and affection…"

"I thee wed."

"I thee…" Killian slid his survivor ring onto her left ring finger, "…wed." If possible, the smile on Emma's face grew exponentially.

A second drawing appeared among the loose pages in Henry's pile, and it was a picture of his mom and Killian, standing under the trellis in front of Granny's, kissing. It was from earlier that day, if Henry recalled correctly, just after they had gotten home from New York. A wedding dress from the bridal shop across the street was featured in the background of the picture.

Henry picked up his pen and began scribbling, reading his words out loud as he wrote them, "Having witnessed your vows of marriage with the rest of the family (who aren't here right now) over the course of the last ten weeks, and by the power vested in me by the gods and the Sorcerer…" he deliberately coughed out loud, twice, looking _directly_ at Killian while he did it, "…it is now my great honor to _finally_ pronounce you husband and wife." He glanced up in time to see the two of them dive into a heated kiss, "What the gods hath put together, let no one put asunder." Dropping his pen, he leaned back in his seat and watched them for a quick second. "I'd say, 'You may kiss the bride', but you two jumped the gun on that ages ago." He muttered with an affectionate shake of his head, gathering the new loose pages and putting them into some kind of order so that they could attach themselves into the binding later on.

Their life wasn't ordinary, and it was _certainly_ far from boring (for better or for worse). Truthfully, as an author, from a writer's perspective, Henry wouldn't have written his parents' marriage ceremony any other way. It was long, it was drawn-out, it had them _all_ there as witnesses, the vows were done by action rather than word, the best man and maid-of-honor were _exactly_ the people he had pictured they would be (his grandpa and grandma, respectively) and their union was an _actual_ , physical union. Henry made a face and closed the book. Well…maybe he would've left _that_ part out. Maybe he would've gone one step less than the gods did and just made their union a superficial kind of union rather than a…real one. Henry shuttered. They consummated the marriage before the actual ceremony, and yet the Product of True Love that _came_ from that consummation was what _triggered_ the ceremony, essentially. It all felt like a "chicken-and-egg" thing for Henry—which came first the marriage or the union? Or were those two concepts just the same thing in the gods' eyes?

"So are you going by your married name now, mom?" Henry asked, pushing her tray of onion rings over as she came to sit at the table. "Mrs. Jones?" He saw Killian try and fail to suppress a gigantic smile at the sound of that.

"We're going to _ease_ into it." Emma replied, slathering an onion ring in ranch dressing. "Gradually."

"Do you want me to stop calling you 'Swan' then, Emma?" Killian asked, coming to sit next to his bride.

"Oh, god, no!" Emma frowned, shaking her head vigorously. "You calling me 'Swan' has less to do with it being my name, and more to do with…like…"

"Like grandma calling grandpa 'Charming', or him calling her 'Snow'?" Henry tried. "It's like a pet name."

"Exactly!" Emma nodded. "And besides, I didn't drop the 'Swan' completely." She explained, "I don't want to _totally_ forget where I came from, or what happened to me throughout my life, so I just made it my middle name. I don't have one anyway. 'Jones' is the name I _chose_ to have, though…" she slung her arm around his back and leaned her chin on his shoulder, "…when I chose you." The two of them smiled at each other.

"So you're saying if _I_ chose to have a different name…" Henry broke in, wanting to ruin the mushiness of their moment, "…you'd be okay with it?"

"As long as the name has meaning _to you_ ," Emma nodded, "And as long as you don't change it every three months," she cautioned him, "I would have no problem with you choosing your name."

"Be careful what you wish for, luv." Killian chuckled.

"I'm not going to make it some ridiculous name!" Henry argued, "But I'm gonna hold you to that, mom! If I ever decide to change my name, you totally just said I could. I have a witness!" He pointed to Killian, who continued to laugh.

"Alright, kid! I got it!" Emma waved for him to calm down.

"So I have some ideas about how we could announce things to the family." Henry began, "You don't mind it being at Granny's do you?"

Killian exchanged a look with Emma, "Not in the least, lad." He shook his head.

"Sweet! 'Cause here's what I was thinking…"

* * *

"Red Dragon Herbal Remedies, how may help you?"

"Good Evening, Your Majesty."

There was silence on the line for a good full minute before an altogether different voice came on the phone, a smile apparent in its tone, "Rumplestiltskin!"

"How's my favorite student?" The Dark One smirked. He had waited a _long_ time to have her back, and now that she was, he was going to take advantage of this turn of good fortune.

"Finally _free_!" She cackled, clearly delighted to be rid of Regina's good conscience.

"Congratulations!" Rumple smiled, picking up Pandora's box and carrying it with him into the back room, "Now how would you like a chance to get revenge on your jailor." He offered her, sweetening the deal by adding, " _All_ your jailors."

"Oh, Rumplestiltskin…" The Evil Queen moaned over the phone, "You always knew _exactly_ what to say to make a girl want to do your bidding." She laughed, "So what's the price going to be this time? I know there's going to be one. And will I enjoy it?"

"Now that you're finally free of Regina, I'm absolutely certain it's going to be _quite_ a treat for you."

"Oh, _**YES**_!" The Evil Queen groaned. She sounded like a woman at the very brink of orgasm, and considering the Evil Queen got her pleasure from the suffering of others, Rumple was pretty darn sure she was. This was probably what he missed most about the Evil Queen. "Oh, you don't know how long I've _waited_ for this! By trying to get rid of _me_ , Regina gave me exactly what I wanted— _ **freedom!**_ " She cackled, changing her tone to sound like one of mock pity, "And _all_ it took to get poor wittle Wegina off my twail was to sacrifice my heart and dissolve myself into a pile of dust!" Her voice changed back to normal, "Then I took the Dragon's! And she severed the only connection she had with me—her _strength!_ " She grinned, "And now I am _**FREE!**_ And she's useless."

"A shell without substance." Rumple agreed. "You and I both know where those people belong."

"I told the Dragon Regina should have never let me out to play." She crooned, "I'm going to show that _weakling_ what it _really_ means to end a life! Right before I end hers." Her voice dropped an octave, " _Permanently_. And then that'll be the _end_ of Regina Mills."

"Long live the Evil Queen!" Rumple smiled, figuring it was time to talk about business. "But _first_ , you actually have to get _in_ to Storybrooke so that you can kill her."

"And _heeeeeere_ it comes!" The Evil Queen snorted, "Rumplestiltskin's Great Plan! What do you need from me _this_ time, Dark One?!"

"Patience."

Rumple heard something slam hard against a table, the sound of shattering glass following half-a-second later. "That's what you asked of me the _first_ time around!" She growled.

"And you _won_ , didn't you?" The Dark One pointed out. "You got your curse, you got your town, you got your Happy Ending."

"Well now my Happy Ending has changed!"

Rumple snorted, "Well _there's_ a shocker!"

"I want _her_ dead!" The Evil Queen snarled, "And then I want Snow White dead! And then I want her whole _family_ dead! WAIT!" She stopped as a thought suddenly occurred to her, "I changed my mind—I want to kill Snow White's family _in front_ of her! _And then_ I want Snow White dead! I want her to suffer first!"

"Did you give any thought as to how you were actually going to _achieve_ that goal?" Rumple asked, trying to make his point, "Did you just think you were going to waltz in here and take on Regina _and_ the Savior _and_ that blasted pirate _and_ everyone else together?" He scoffed, " _You will_ _ **LOSE**_ if you do that, Your Majesty."

"And I suppose you have a better plan?"

"In fact I do!" He skipped to what he figured would be her favorite part, "You look _exactly_ like Regina, Your Majesty."

There was silence on the line for a good full minute as the implications of Rumple's statement permeated the Evil Queen's mind. "Continue." She replied simply.

"I let you into town," Rumple explained, "You make yourself known to the locals, and then you just lie low. I'll throw other distractions their way. I've got plenty here that'll suffice."

The Evil Queen scoffed, "They're _still_ going to come after me."

"So let them." The Dark One shrugged, "After all, the point is to get _Regina_ to come after you. The point is to let her take you on _alone_."

"So I can take her place." The Evil Queen realized. "So I can kill her, take her place, and make those sniveling heroes think that she killed _me_."

" _Now_ you're catching on…"

"And then I can _finally_ destroy Snow White and her family from the inside out!" Rumple heard a giant grin appear as the Evil Queen gasped in delight. "Oh…you _marvelous_ little man!" She moaned, basking in the brilliance of the idea before quickly getting down to business, "Alright, Dark One, what's the price?" She knew it was a steep one. Rumple was offering her something _big_!

"A Product of True Love." He told her, not bothering to beat around the bush. After all, he didn't need to dance around Regina's conscience any more.

"Isn't that what you wanted the _first_ time?!" The Evil Queen droned, clearly not impressed with his request.

"I have my reasons for wanting it this time around!" Rumple snapped, not wanting to tell her more than he needed to.

"Is there any _specific_ Product of True Love you're looking for, or will just _any_ Product of True Love do?" She continued.

"I need a baby. A _powerful_ one!" Rumple was already planning on how he was going to get her to steal the pirate's baby from under its parents' noses.

"Great! I'll just snatch Snow White's new little brat while they're sleeping!" She resolved.

"No!" Rumple snapped, not wanting any second-rate child for this exchange. He already had his heart set on making the pirate's life as miserable as possible, and nothing less would do! "Not that one!"

" _Oh_ …so there _is_ a specific Product of True Love that you want!" He could just about hear the Evil Queen rolling her eyes. "Well spit it out! Whose brat is it?!"

"You're gonna love this."

"I had _better!_ "

"The Product of True Love belonging to Emma Swan and Killian Jones."

For the third time during that call, silence filled the line. "The _Savior's_ brat!" The Evil Queen breathed in wonderment after a long beat. The Dark One could practically hear the wheels turning in her head. He smiled.

"Told ya you'd like it!"

" _Like_ it?!" The Evil Queen cackled, "Rumplestiltskin, you know me better than that, I _**LOVE**_ it!" She rejoiced in his choice of target. "Oh, what're you gonna do with it?! Are you gonna cut it up?! Can I eat its little heart?!"

" _After_ I kill it!" Rumple growled, getting back to the point. "You can do whatever you want with its body after it's dead! _Now_ …do we have a deal or not?"

"Let's see…You get me into Storybrooke so I can take care of my business, and I get you the Savior's brat." She laughed, "This is a win-win situation!"

"Then I'll see you at the town line, Your Majesty." Rumple sneered.

All he heard as he hung up the phone was the Evil Queen's signature cackle, and a clap of thunder in the distance.

* * *

"Oh, what do you think it is, David?!" Snow turned to him excitedly. "Do you think it is what _I_ think it is?!" She recalled her run-in with Emma, Killian and Henry the other day at the maternity ward. She, David and Neal were going in, Emma, Killian and Henry were coming out, they had insisted that they weren't there for an appointment, but Snow didn't believe them, and now they were inviting everyone to Granny's for a mysterious party, and—

"God, I hope not!" David groaned, burying his face in his hands.

"What do you mean you hope not?!" Snow snapped, turning a scowl onto her husband. "Why would you say that, David?!"

"They're not even married yet, Snow!" David argued, crossing his arms defensively, "And I mean…they haven't even been dating for all that long. Like five or six months! _Maybe_ seven!"

"You _do_ realize that our daughter just went to _hell_ and back for that man, don't you?!" The princess exclaimed, "Well…she went _**to**_ _ **hell**_ for him, and he came _**back**_ for her." She clarified.

David groaned, "Don't remind me."

"You have to stop being in denial, David."

"Says the woman who didn't think anything was going on between them _even_ _after_ I told you there was!" The prince argued.

Snow looked offended. And confused.

"Back in Neverland," David clarified, "After we rescued Neal. I told you there was _something_ going on between them, and you said no, that she still wanted Neal, and that we should push her towards him." He waved at no one in particular, "And lo and behold, who comes back for her in New York? Who convinced her to come home?! And _stay_ home?!"

"Fine! I was wrong about him!" She conceded, seeing if that would make David a little less agitated. "They were True Love from the get-go, and Neal wasn't the one. There! Are you happy? I admitted I was wrong _back then_. I don't think I'm wrong now."

"Do you really want her to be p—" He couldn't even bring himself to say it! David sighed in frustration.

"Honey, you don't understand!" Snow began, sitting next to her husband at the table. "She lost Henry for ten years, and she was conscious of it that _entire_ time!" She explained, "I was only conscious of it for less than ten minutes, before I got her back!"

"As an _adult_." David pointed out. "Henry's still young. She still has a chance at raising him—you never got that!"

"But I never had to live through ten years of torture like _she_ did!" Snow shook her head, "Knowing my baby was out there somewhere, and she couldn't be in my arms right now because I gave her up for her own good!" She began tearing up just thinking about it, "I lived through that in the Underworld, and that was _barely_ a week or two! I can't imagine _**ten years**_ of that, David!"

The shepherd sighed. He was starting to see her point. Maybe.

"Now she can get another chance, like _we_ did!" Snow continued to explain, "Another chance at being there from the _very_ beginning—to hold her baby, to have those sleepless nights—everything that she wanted, everything that she _missed_ , she can get a second chance at it now! Don't you understand?" She shook her husband so that he met her eyes, "Every time she looked at me when I went to those Mommy and Me classes a few months ago, she looked envious at me, and at first I thought…maybe she's jealous of the baby, and not having with me what the baby has with me, but do you know what she told me _later on_ , during one of our Girls' Nights out?"

"What?" David asked softly, paying complete attention to her now.

"That wasn't it." Snow shook her head. "She wasn't jealous of the baby. She was jealous of _me_." She saw her husband frown. "She was jealous of what I had with the baby. What she missed with Henry."

David's heart broke. And Snow knew exactly when it did.

"So what if she's pregnant, David?" Snow put an arm around him, "It's with the man she loves. And he's _great_ with Henry. And _you_ love him too, admit it!" She shook the stubborn man in her arms.

A tiny smile tugged at the corner of David's lips. "I have no idea what you're talking about."

Snow giggled, "Sure you don't!" She tugged at his shoulder, "Come on! Let's go before we miss the good food!" David rolled his eyes, but climbed to his feet nonetheless.

Half-an-hour later, the couple and their infant stood in the middle of Granny's, near the kitchen window, where the three party hosts were gathered. Killian stood in the middle of the room, with Emma to his right and Henry to his left. Regina was planted at the counter, Zelena and the baby, her constant companions, at her side, and the Charmings were next to Emma. From their vantage point, Snow could _just_ make out Emma's left hand. It was grasping Killian's right, and her ring finger was really buried back there, but regardless, she could make out the outline of a ring on the finger.

"Oh! I know what it is!" She whispered to David, "She's engaged!" She squealed excitedly.

David's stomach wouldn't settle down. He had a feeling it was _much_ more than just that! Reaching for the rum on the rolling cart, he poured himself a tiny shot and downed it.

"Oh, would you stop that!" She hissed, "This is supposed to be a happy occasion! I thought we settled this in the loft?!"

"And we did!" He assured her. "Whatever it is—engagement, marriage, baby—I'm happy for all three of them!"

"Then what's the problem?"

"I have a bad feeling about something." He confessed.

"What?"

"I don't know!" David snapped, irritated that he couldn't put his finger on what exactly was bothering him. "It's just…something."

"You can't even _describe_ what it is that you're feeling?" Snow asked, concerned.

"Déjà vu." Her husband sighed. "That's all I can say about it. Déjà vu." He shrugged, "I feel like history is about to repeat itself."

 _Clink! Clink! Clink!_

"Everyone!" _Clink! Clink!_ "Can we have your attention?" Killian raised his hook to call the room to attention, Emma and Henry gathering close on either side of him. The couple's hands were clasped, and Emma was holding the empty glass Killian was tapping on with his hook.

The room fell silent, and all eyes focused on them.

Killian cleared his throat and exchanged a glance with Emma. She gave him an encouraging nod and he took a deep breath. "Okay, well…As you all know, _a lot_ of stuff has happened to us over the course of the last few weeks."

"Or months." Emma added with a shrug.

"As it were." Killian nodded, fidgeting uncomfortably.

" _ **A LOT**_ of stuff!" Henry snorted, making half the room chuckle lightly.

"Yes, well…" He cleared his throat a second time, gripping Emma's hand tighter. "Because of that, we actually have _two_ announcements to make."

" _Two_?!" Snow squeaked, delightfully surprised.

The couple smiled at her, "Yes…the _first_ announcement is that…" Killian ran his thumb against the ring on Emma's finger, "…considering _everything_ we've went through these last few weeks, everything you've _seen_ us go through—"

"And considering that not even death has done us part…" Emma murmured, making some girls in the audience squeak in anticipation.

"We decided that you were all, at _some_ point or another, witness to our ten-week-long…informal…wedding ceremony."

Someone in the back gasped. The room remained silent.

Killian fidgeted. Nobody reacted. Which meant he just messed that up!

"Wait, what does that _mean_ , exactly?!" Grumpy snapped, confused.

"It means that I now present to you Mr. and Mrs. Jones!" Henry clarified with a blinding grin, waving at the two adults next to him.

"Huz-ZUH!" "HEY!" The room suddenly erupted in applause and screams of well wishes. Killian sent a sheepish smile to his wife, who sent him back an endearing look as she waved her left hand out so that everybody could see that she was wearing his ring.

"You are such a dork!" She whispered, as she leaned in to give him a sweet kiss. Killian merely blushed and shrugged as he accepted it from her.

"Oh, congratulations, Emma!" Snow exclaimed, immediately wrapping her in a hug as soon as Emma turned to her.

"Thanks, mom!" Emma grinned. From the corner of her eye, she saw her dad and Killian exchange a quick embrace. She allowed herself to be held for a long beat before she pulled away, "By the way, I'm sorry we ran out on you guys at Whale's office the other day. We just didn't want to make the announcement that way."

"It's alright, Emma." David broke in, coming up from behind her. "Congratulations, sweetie!" She turned and gave him a hug as well, grateful he wasn't giving either her or Killian the pushback they had feared. "Besides, I think Whale already managed to make that announcement for you." He felt Emma's groan. "Just answer me one thing…" She pulled away so that she could give him her full attention. "Which one of us walked you down the aisle? Or…whatever?"

Emma rolled her eyes, and she heard her mom slap her father lightly on the shoulder. Somehow, Killian had _known_ this was going to be some kind of a weird issue for David. Fortunately, she had already figured out the answer for it. " _Neither_ of you did." She replied, much to both their surprises. "You were the best man, and mom was my maid-of-honor." She reached for her mother's hand, and Snow gave it to her with a wistful smile, "She walked _behind_ me down that staircase."

David nodded in understanding. "In King Arthur's court." He remembered. And he had _indeed_ been standing next to Killian, where the best man traditionally stood at the altar. "Got it."

"What was the second thing, Emma?" Snow pushed excitedly. She had an inkling she knew what it was, but she wanted it said _out loud_ already!

"Right! The other thing!" She picked up her fork and tapped her glass once again. "Okay, everyone! Can we have your attention once again! We still have to say the other thing!"

Silence once again descended, save for a few squeaks of anticipation, and Emma once more took her place next to Killian at the front of the room. It was _her_ turn to make the announcement now. "Right! So…" She exchanged a nervous grin with her husband, grasping his hand like before, "…that was the first announcement—that we're married. And the second announcement is…" she bit her lip, gripping Killian's hand tighter for support, "…I'm pregnant!"

Both Ruby and Snow shrieked excitedly beside her, and Emma turned towards them with a giant grin. "Really?!" "See?!" "Oh my god!" "I _knew_ it!" "I can't believe it!" "I told you, David!" "Oh my god!" "Congratulations, sweeth—"

Just as Snow was about to envelop Emma in a second bear hug for the evening, the door to Granny's flew open, slamming against the back window with a loud thud, and there, standing at the threshold, in her full regalia, was the Evil Queen herself.

A scream erupted from the back, and the crowd immediately parted down the center of the room, creating a path from the Evil Queen directly to Emma and Killian. Regina, for her part, stood frozen in shock at the counter, watching the proceedings with a look of absolute terror on her face.

"No…" Emma breathed in shock. Subconsciously, she pressed herself closer to Killian, who likewise pulled her tighter against his chest.

"I believe congratulations are in order." The Evil Queen declared, her gaze laser focusing on the couple directly across the room from her. A malevolent smile slowly spread across her face. "I hear _someone's_ have a baby!"

Like the flipping of a switch, the mention of their unborn child by someone so evil had both Emma _and_ Killian jumping into action. Killian moved to push Emma behind him, but Emma suddenly found her Mama Bear switch turned on, and she couldn't help her immediate reaction. As the Evil Queen started to saunter into the room, she jumped out in front of her family and held out a hand. It glowed bright white with magic, and she aimed the ball of power directly at the Evil Queen. From the corner of her eye, she saw Killian sweep Henry behind him.

"You stay away from my family, you evil witch, or I _will_ kill you, I _promise_ you that!" She hissed, the ball of light in her hand pulsing from white to gray to black and back again in tune with her anger.

As soon as Killian noticed the flickers of black in Emma's magical ball, he quickly stepped up behind her and gently began pulling her arm back down. "Come now, Swan. Let's not stoop to her level. There's no need." In her ear, Killian whispered a soft reminder, "If you kill, your magic _will_ turn dark again." It was enough to force her hand down to cover her stomach, and silently, they both cast a protection spell around the baby and Henry behind them.

Stepping up, Killian directly addressed the Evil Queen. "Look, I don't know how you survived, and I don't know how you got here, but I've got a _very_ good idea as to who let you into this town, and we've got a message for the both of you." He pointed a threatening finger at the powerful witch he now suspected was working with the Crocodile, " _ **GIVE IT UP!**_ " He warned them, "You're both wasting your time." He protectively stepped in front of Emma and Henry, "And I will _**NEVER**_ let you get your hands on either of our children, I promise you!" He growled dangerously.

"Oh, I haven't come here to take your child!" The Evil Queen smiled sweetly at him. "At least not today." She snorted, "No, on the contrary, dear, I've come to give you a gift!"

"Well, you can take your gift and shove it!" Emma snapped, waving a hand from behind Killian that sent the Evil Queen barreling back towards the door.

Using her own magic, the Evil Queen reflected Emma's magic right back at her, and used another wave to right herself and keep herself inside the room. The magical rebound would've sent Emma sprawling had it not been for Henry, behind her, who caught her and righted her just in time.

Emma's near fall sent Killian into a rage, and he would've tackled the Evil Queen had it not been for the fireball she held at the ready (aimed at his chest, but still in her hand) and her simultaneous exclamation, "Oh, but you shall _have_ it!" She cried, as if her monologue wasn't just rudely interrupted by someone magically shoving her towards the door. "My gift to you…" her fireball danced in her palm, flaring as it moved between Emma and Killian and back again, "…is this happy, _happy_ evening." She closed her fist and the fireball disappeared, her hand moving to futz with her dress instead. "For tomorrow my _real_ work begins!"

Emma's hands gripped Killian's arm tightly, and Henry did the same with his other arm, as the three of them huddled close together where they stood, somehow transfixed by the Evil Queen's dramatic little speech before them.

"You two wanna talk about promises? Well, I've got one for you." She stopped directly in front of the trio, "I promise _you_ that I will get my victory." She pointed to Snow, "You…" then Henry, "…and you…" then Regina, "…and, most especially, _**you**_ are going to pay for what you've done!" Her eyes focused squarely on Emma again, "And I am going to start with _you_!" She sneered, "Soon, everything that you love—everything _all_ of you love—shall be taken from you _forever_!"

"Oh, gods, not again!" Someone groaned quietly at the back of the room, and immediately the crowd started to fidget and shift. Emma herself got uncomfortable at the Queen's threat and tore her gaze away to check on Henry next to her. The kid was almost completely hidden behind Killian now, and he was shivering in fear. Emma wrapped a comforting arm around him and pulled him close to her side. Killian, meanwhile, stood steadfastly in front of them, his gaze locked onto the Evil Queen like a hungry lion ready to pounce.

"Not if _we_ can help it!" The pirate growled at his prey.

The Evil Queen, who had been basking in the negative energy of the room, started at Hook's threat. "I'd like to see you try, pirate!" She jeered, "Tick-tock, Captain Hook! Tick-tock, tick-tock! _My_ fun begins the second your little brat is born…" She looked directly at Emma and dropped her voice an octave or two, "…when I yank him _straight_ out of your arms! So _enjoy_ the next few months, because _once_ they're over," she locked eyes with the seething Killian, "you shall all live _**miserably**_ …ever after!"

Cackling at her own bad joke, the Evil Queen turned on her heel and began marching towards the door.

The break in eye contact set Killian off, and this time, he really _did_ pounce, " _ **Oi!**_ " He snapped, causing the Evil Queen to turn back towards them just as she reached the threshold.

Like the natural everyone (who knew) claimed him to be, Killian stuck out his hand, and straight out of his palm flew a ball of bright white magic. It zipped towards the Evil Queen at lightning speed, but by the time it actually got to her, all it met was purple smoke and empty air.

She had poofed away.

 **END OF "PILOT REDUX" STORY PORTION**


End file.
